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Rank and organization: Technician Fifth Grade, U.S. Army, Company M, 35th
Infantry, 25th Infantry Division. Place and date: Mount Austen, Guadalcanal,
Solomon Islands, 10 January 1943. Entered service at: Obetz, Rural Station 7,
Columbus, Ohio. Born: 1895, Bloom, Ohio. G.O. No.: 28, 5 June 1943.
Citation: For gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty.
As leader of a machinegun squad charged with the protection of other battalion
units, his group was attacked by a superior number of Japanese, his gunner
killed, his assistant gunner wounded, and an adjoining guncrew put out of
action. Ordered to withdraw from his hazardous position, he refused to retire
but rushed forward to the idle gun and with the aid of another soldier who
joined him and held up the machinegun by the tripod to increase its field of
action he opened fire and inflicted heavy casualties upon the enemy. While so
engaged both these gallant soldiers were killed, but their sturdy defense was a
decisive factor in the following success of the attacking battalion.
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