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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. Birth: 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.
This data was extracted from the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, U.S. Senate, Medal of Honor Recipients: 1863-1973 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1973)
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