John Druse "Bud" Hawk and Pres. Truman
"He manned a light machinegun on 20 August 1944, near Chambois, France, a key point in the encirclement which created the Falaise Pocket.
During an enemy counterattack, his position was menaced by a strong
force of tanks and infantry. His fire forced the infantry to withdraw,
but an artillery shell knocked out his gun and wounded him in the right
thigh. Securing a bazooka,
he and another man stalked the tanks and forced them to retire to a
wooded section. In the lull which followed, Sgt. Hawk reorganized 2
machinegun squads and, in the face of intense enemy fire, directed the
assembly of 1 workable weapon from 2 damaged guns. When another enemy
assault developed, he was forced to pull back from the pressure of
spearheading armor. Two of our tank destroyers were brought up. Their
shots were ineffective because of the terrain until Sgt. Hawk, despite
his wound, boldly climbed to an exposed position on a knoll where,
unmoved by fusillades from the enemy, he became a human aiming stake for
the destroyers. Realizing that his shouted fire directions could not be
heard above the noise of battle, he ran back to the destroyers through a
concentration of bullets and shrapnel to correct the range. He returned
to his exposed position, repeating this performance until 2 of the
tanks were knocked out and a third driven off. Still at great risk, he
continued to direct the destroyers' fire into the Germans' wooded
position until the enemy came out and surrendered. Sgt. Hawk's fearless
initiative and heroic conduct, even while suffering from a painful
wound, was in large measure responsible for crushing 2 desperate
attempts of the enemy to escape from the Falaise Pocket and for taking
more than 500 prisoners."
From Sgt. Hawk's Medal of Honor citation, awarded on July 13, 1945.
May you be at peace,
Brian
Medal of Honor memorial at the University of Washington
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