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Rank and organization:
Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army,
Company L, 142d Infantry, 36th Infantry Division.
Place and date:
Magliano, Italy, 14 June 1944.
Entered service at:
Baton Rouge, La.
Birth:
Baton Rouge, La.
G.O. No.:
90, 8 December 1944.
Citation:
While his platoon was pinned down by enemy small-arms fire from both flanks, he
left his position of comparative safety and assisted in carrying I of his men, who had
been seriously wounded and who lay in an exposed position, to a point where he could
receive medical attention. The advance of the platoon was resumed but was again stopped by
enemy frontal fire. A German officer and 2 enlisted men, armed with automatic weapons,
threatened the right flank. Fearlessly exposing himself, he moved to a position from which
he killed all 3 with his submachinegun. Returning to his squad, he obtained an MI rifle
and several antitank grenades, then took up a position from which he delivered accurate
fire on the enemy holding up the advance. As the battalion moved forward it was again
stopped by enemy frontal and flanking fire. He procured an automatic rifle and, advancing
ahead of his men, neutralized an enemy machinegun with his fire. When the flanking fire
became more intense he ran to a nearby tank and exposing himself on the turret, restored a
jammed machinegun to operating efficiency and used it so effectively that the enemy fire
from an adjacent ridge was materially reduced, thus permitting the battalion to occupy its
objective.
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