Long Beach Salutes Medal of Honor Recipient on Sept. 29

In May 2008, the late Al Symons, a Long Beach resident and retired engineer who worked for the Department of Defense, requested that the City Council designate Sept. 29 as Michael Valente Day. That September, Symons got his wish.

The council voted to designate that date in honor of the city’s lone recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor — the highest award for valor given to a member of the U.S. Armed Forces for actions against an enemy force. At the time, just 3,446 such medals had been awarded since its inception in 1863.  

“You have no idea how happy I am that you are taking this resolution at this time,” Symons said to the applause of the crowd at the council meeting that night.  

City Manager Charles Theofan noted that the council heeded President George W. Bush’s nationwide call to honor the memory of all recipients of the prestigious medal.   “In the City of Long Beach, we want every September 29 to be a day for people to reflect and honor the life and accomplishments of Michael Valente,” Theofan said. “… This is the very least we can do to honor him.”  

On Sept. 29, 1918, Private Valente’s regiment, Company D of the 107th Infantry, was suffering heavy casualties during operations against German forces at the Hindenburg line near Ronssoy, France. Alongside a fellow soldier, Valente rushed forward through intense machine gun fire directly on an enemy nest, killing two gunners and capturing five enemy soldiers.  

Discovering another machine gun nest nearby that rained heavy fire on American forces, Valente and his companion charged it, killed the gunner, jumped into the enemy trench, killed two more soldiers and captured 21 others. Valente's actions represent the first penetration of the Hindenburg line.

Nearly 11 years later to the day, on Sept. 27, 1929, President Herbert Hoover decorated Valente, then a retired sergeant, with the medal in Washington.   "It's the proudest moment of my life," Valente said, according to a New York Times account dated the day after.    

An Italian immigrant, Valente married Margareta Marchello after the war and moved to her hometown, Newark, N.J., before the couple settled in Long Beach around 1919, eventually buying a home on West Walnut Street where they raised three children. Valente was a contractor and real estate agent who built houses in Long Beach, but he eventually gave up the business to work as the city marshal at City Hall. Valente was 80 years old when he died in 1976.

“My father was very proud, but he didn’t talk about it much,” Valente’s daughter, Lido Beach resident Josephine Cuneo, said of the Medal of Honor. “He was wonderful, kind and soft-spoken. Unless other people told us about the medal, we would never have known.”  

The city named one of its senior apartments, near City Hall, after Valente, as did the Sons of Italy lodge that he attended. In July 2010, the County Legislature voted unanimously to rename the Long Beach Bridge the Michael Valente Memorial Bridge. The renaming ceremony was held the following March at the bridge and City Hall.  

Ralph Madalena, Valente’s grandson who lives in Long Beach, was instrumental in getting the bridge renamed.   

“Many cultures believe that you never die, so long as you are remembered,” Madalena said, “and people like my grandfather live on.”