STRYKER, STUART S. - Medal of Honor Recipient
Rank and organization. Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company E, 513th
Parachute Infantry, 17th Airborne Division. Place and date: Near Wesel,
Germany, 24 March 1945. Entered service at: Portland, Oreg. Birth. Portland,
Oreg. G.O. No.: 117, 11 December 1945. Citation. He was a platoon runner,
when the unit assembled near Wesel, Germany after a descent east of the
Rhine. Attacking along a railroad, Company E reached a point about 250
yards from a large building used as an enemy headquarters and manned by
a powerful force of Germans with rifles, machineguns, and 4 field pieces.
One platoon made a frontal assault but was pinned down by intense fire
from the house after advancing only 50 yards. So badly stricken that it
could not return the raking fire, the platoon was at the mercy of German
machine gunners when Pfc. Stryker voluntarily left a place of comparative
safety, and, armed with a carbine, ran to the head of the unit. In full
view of the enemy and under constant fire, he exhorted the men to get to
their feet and follow him. Inspired by his fearlessness, they rushed after
him in a desperate charge through an increased hail of bullets. Twenty-five
yards from the objective the heroic soldier was killed by the enemy fusillades.
His gallant and wholly voluntary action in the face of overwhelming firepower,
however, so encouraged his comrades and diverted the enemy's attention
that other elements of the company were able to surround the house, capturing
more than 200 hostile soldiers and much equipment, besides freeing 3 members
of an American bomber crew held prisoner there. The intrepidity and unhesitating
self-sacrifice of Pfc. Stryker were in keeping with the highest traditions
of the military service.
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