From the Jan. 4, 2012, Washington Post "Mike Colalillo, WWII Medal of Honor recipient, dead at 86.
Mr. Colalillo died December 30, 2011. He received his Medal of Honor during a machine gun assault near the end of the war in which the Germans sustained 25 casualties.
On April 7, 1945, 19-year-old Army Pfc Colalillo was on patrol outside Untergricsheim, Germany when his unit came under fire. They were pinned down and he told others to follow him in a dash toward the machine gun nest. He was holding a submachine gun until it was knocked out of his hands bu shrapnel.
He the ran toward a American tank and took over the machine gun of the turret and he then killed or wounded ten Germans at one position and took out another machine gun nest. That wasn't the end as he killed three more at another machine gun nest.
The turret machine gun jammed and he jumped off, grabbed another submachine gun and continued his assault on foot. Altogether, he killed or wounded 25 Germans that day.
When ordered to withdraw, he stayed behind and carried a wounded comrade back over his shoulder.
The Medal of Honor was given to him in December 1945 in a White House ceremony.
Quite the Hero. --GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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