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Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company B, 301st
Engineer Combat Battalion, 76th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near
Prumzurley, Germany, 27 February 1945. Entered service at: Lubbock, Tex.
Birth: Marlow, Okla. G.O. No.: 92, 25 October 1945. Citation: He displayed
conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity. While helping clear enemy mines
from a road, he stepped on a well-concealed S-type antipersonnel mine.
Hearing the characteristic noise indicating that the mine had been activated
and, if he stepped aside, would be thrown upward to explode above ground
and spray the area with fragments, surely killing 2 comrades directly behind
him and endangering other members of his squad, he deliberately placed
his other foot on the mine even though his best chance for survival was
to fall prone. Pvt. Wallace was killed when the charge detonated, but his
supreme heroism at the cost of his life confined the blast to the ground
and his own body and saved his fellow soldiers from death or injury.
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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