Where is Cafferata Park and who is Hector A. Cafferata, Jr.?

Where is Cafferata Park and who is Hector A. Cafferata, Jr.?

Hector A. Cafferata, Jr. Park is located at 160 Port Murray Road, Port Murray, across from the Xfinity store. Many residents are unaware that Mansfield has a park. Hopefully, The Green Team’s event—Mansfield Celebrates America’s 250th Anniversary—will introduce the park to both residents and people from surrounding areas.

Marine Private Hector A. Cafferata, Jr. was a decorated war hero. He received the Medal of Honor November 27, 1952, from President Harry Truman. After serving as a Marine in WWII, he went back into combat in the Korean War at age 21 as a reservist. In the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, Korea, he rushed from his sleeping bag—only wearing socks in the snow—to find that all of his squad had been killed with the exception of himself and his foxhole mate. As they were battered with hand grenades, his foxhole mate—who was rendered sightless in the attack—kept filling his and Hector’s M-1’s with ammo. Hector not only shot the approaching enemies, but fended off the grenades by striking them with his entrenching shovel, hurling them away from the line. While catching and throwing a grenade away from the wounded, the grenade went off and injured his fingers, but he still prevented the overrunning of the American lines. The battle lasted more than five hours with Hector killing a hundred of the enemy. He caught three prisoners, then turned them over to three Marines who had finally arrived.

Still in his socks, he looked for his boots and was shot in the arm, and then shot in the chest. Suffering from frostbite to his feet, he staggered to the aid tent to get checked out; but they couldn’t help him. He spent the next eighteen months in hospitals in Korea, Japan, Hawaii, California, Texas, and Long Island. The bullet in his arm severed the nerves and he never regained use of his right hand.

In addition to receiving the Medal of Honor, he was awarded the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Navy Presidential Unit Citation, National Defense Service Medal, Korean Service Medal, Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, and the United Nations Korea Medal.

Upon returning home in 1952, he ran a few sporting goods stores in New Jersey, sold wholesale guns and ammo, bought a bar, and eventually got a job with the New Jersey Division of Fish and Game. He lived in Alpha and Port Murray with his wife, Doris, and their four children. He retired in 1994 to hunt and fish and then moved to Venice, Florida.

In January 2012, the U.S. Postal Service issued stamps to honor Hector for extraordinary courage and devotion.

The USNS Hector A. Cafferata, Jr. Expedition Sea Base Ship was christened in March 2026 serving Special Operations Forces and Intelligence Surveillance. The Hector A. Cafferata, Jr. Elementary School is in Cape Coral, Florida, and the Hector A. Cafferata, Jr. Park is in Port Murray, New Jersey.

Hector died at the age of 86 on April 12, 2016.

Attached are additional photo.