Within the graveyard.

A standard Veterans Administration upright gravestone (of the time era) set within a concrete wall with stanchions.

The Isolated Burial of Private Jose B. Nisperos who was the first Filipino Medal of Honor Recipient, who received the Medal for the defense of his military detachment and his commanding officer while serving in the US Army Philippine Scouts, 34th Company, during the Philippine War in 1911.

Background:

In the early morning hours of September 24, 1911, an eight-man detachment was sent on an expedition to search for insurgents on Basilan Island. Working in concert with a larger Philippine Scout force, this detachment was commanded by Ensign Charles Hovey, and consisted of Nisperos as an interpreter, five enlisted men from the U.S.S. Pampanga, and a local guide.

When the detachment came under attack, Hovey, Nisperos, one of the enlisted men, and the guide had been reconnoitering ahead of the other four men in the group. The guide was killed immediately and Hovey mortally wounded. Nisperos was speared through his body and shot above his left elbow, shattering the bone. He shielded his wounded commander with his own body, aiming for the attackers with his rifle while digging the stump of his arm into the ground for balance. When medical help arrived, Nisperos insisted his commander be the first to receive aid.

Nisperos and the five enlisted men survived the encounter, but Nisperos lost his left arm. He was honorably discharged for disability in the summer of 1912. 

On February 3, 1913, Nisperos was awarded the Medal of Honor. Newspapers reported that over 5,000 people were present for the event, including three battalions of Philippine Scouts and nearly all the U.S. military officers in the area. Major General J. Franklin Bell (himself a Medal of Honor Recipient) praised his actions, saying:

"The possession of such courage as you displayed on that occasion is not a common virtue. In the presence of excruciating pain and sudden death you preserved sufficient coolness to recognize appalling disaster and possessed that quality of courage, which, rising sublimely above fear and pain, enabled you to forget self and think only of your duty."

Nisperos was appointed Deputy Sheriff of Basilon and received a disability pension.  He died in 1922 at the age of 34 as a result of illness in his hometown of San Fernando.

MOH CITATION:
Having been badly wounded (his left arm was broken and lacerated and he had received several spear wounds in the body so that he could not stand) continued to fire his rifle with one hand until the enemy was repulsed, thereby aiding materially in preventing the annihilation of his party and the mutilation of their bodies.

Source of information and photos:

https://www.cmohs.org;

https://mohmuseum.org/recipient/nisperos-jose-b; 

Find a Grave

JOSE B.

NISPEROS

MEDAL OF HONOR

PRIVATE US ARMY

DEC 31, 1997 AUG 27, 1922