Minnesota's Last Surviving World War II Medal of Honor Recipient Dies

From the Dec. 30, 2011, Duluth (Mn) News Tribune.

Mike Colalillo died Dec. 30th at age 86. He was the son of Italian immigrants, born in Hibbing, Minnesota, but grew up in West Duluth where he was a lifelong resident. Not long after his 18t birthday, he found himself fighting across Germany.

On April 7, 1945, near Untergriesheim, Germany, his unit was pinned down by German fire. With thhe arrival of U.S. tanks, he shouted for his buddies to join him and charge. His handgun was wrecked by shrapnel.

He recalled, "That's when I jumped up on the tank and he (the tank commander) said, 'Use my machine gun up there.'"

Exposed to enemy fire, he destroyed a machine gun nest, silenced a dozen German soldiers and blasted away at three other positions until the enemy fled. When the tank's machine gun ran out of ammunition, he grabbed a submachine gun and kept fighting.

After the fight ended, he spotted a wounded friend and, "I put him on my shoulders and carried him back" several hundred yards over open terrain that was being hit by enemy artillery and mortars.

President Truman presented him with a Medal of Honor. Mike Colalillo Medal of Honor Park and Mike Colalillo Drive in West Duluth are named for him.

One More of the Greatest. --GreGen