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by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian
MAJ. CUBRIA AWARDED BRONZE STAR
On Jun. 6, 1953, Maj. (later Lt. Col.) Mercedes O. Cubria was awarded a Bronze Star for meritorious service. After performing admirably in World War II and the Korean War, Cubria went on to serve as an interpreter for refugees fleeing political and social upheaval in Cuba throughout the 1960s.
Mercedes Cubria was born in Guantanamo, Cuba, in 1903. After the death of her mother, she and two of her sisters were fostered by a wealthy Pennsylvanian philanthropist who brought them to the United States in 1915 to attend American schools. Cubria became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1924 and, from 1926–1928, served as a Spanish interpreter in Cuba for various organizations. After her adoptive mother died in 1932, Cubria returned to the U.S. to manage a ranch and oversee family business affairs.
On Feb. 7, 1943, Cubria enlisted in the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps. She attended Officer Candidate School at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in May 1943. A few months later, she traveled to England to attend codes and cyphers training, before she was assigned to, first, the 385th and, later, the 322d Signal Companies. During the war, Lieutenant Cubria was responsible for supervising approximately sixty enlisted men and women, setting up code rooms, determining equipment and personnel requirements, and managing sensitive materials. Between 1945–1946, she served in various administrative sections across occupied Europe, achieving the rank of captain in June 1946.
Upon returning to the U.S., Captain Cubria was selected to attend a twelve-week course at the Counter Intelligence Corps Training Center at Fort Holabird, Maryland. She went on to serve with G-2, U.S. Army Caribbean, in the Panama Canal Zone, where she earned the rank of major in December 1948. One year later, she attended additional training at Fort Holabird and the Strategic Intelligence School, after which she became an instructor at the Holabird center.
The outbreak of the Korean War led to her assignment as an intelligence analyst at G-2, General Headquarters, Far East Command, in Japan in August 1950. On Jun. 6, 1953, Cubria received a Bronze Star for three years of tireless intelligence support to operations in Korea. Her award citation identified the numerous ways she assisted in the war effort:
"… Major Cubria played a dominant role in the development of a revolutionary method for target designation which served as a basis for planning air strikes and interdiction operations. … Through meticulous research and carefully prepared studies, she provided Psychological Warfare with detailed, positive intelligence which materially aided in countering propaganda and imposed crippling reversals on the enemy. She actively participated in decoding captured documents, advocated and implemented a cryptosystem for plotting maps, and devised an ingenious method of processing and filing data to provide ready intelligence to meet operational needs."
One month after receiving her Bronze Star, Major Cubria retired from military service due to ill health. However, she was recalled to active duty in March 1962 to serve as an interpreter during the refugee crisis caused by the Cuban Revolution of the 1950s and the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Assigned to the 902d Military Intelligence Group, Major Cubria spent the next eleven years interviewing thousands of Cuban refugees and producing intelligence reports for the U.S. Army. Outside of her official duties, Cubria further aided refugees in obtaining jobs, housing, schooling, and social services, earning her the affectionate nickname of “La Tía” (the Aunt).
Major Cubria received the Legion of Merit for her invaluable service during the refugee crisis. She was promoted to lieutenant colonel in June 1972. She retired a year later at the age of seventy and received a second Legion of Merit. Colonel Cubria passed away in 1980 after a long illness and was posthumously inducted into the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame in 1988.
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| Date Taken: | 05.30.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.30.2025 15:26 |
| Story ID: | 499327 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 47 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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