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The President of the United States
in the name of The Congress
takes pleasure
in presenting the
Medal of Honor
to
CALUGAS, JOSE
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Battery B, 88th Field Artillery,
Philippine Scouts. Place and date: At Culis, Bataan Province, Philippine Islands, 16 January 1942. Entered service
at: Fort Stotsenburg, Philippine Islands. Born: 29 December 1907, Barrio Tagsing, Leon, Iloilo, Philippine Islands.
G.O. No.: 10, 24 February 1942.
Citation:
The action for which the award was made took place near Culis, Bataan
Province, Philippine Islands, on 16 January 1942. A battery gun position was bombed and shelled by the enemy until 1 gun was
put out of commission and all the cannoneers were killed or wounded. Sgt. Calugas, a mess sergeant of another battery, voluntarily
and without orders ran 1,000 yards across the shell-swept area to the gun position. There he organized a volunteer squad which
placed the gun back in commission and fired effectively against the enemy, although the position remained under constant and
heavy Japanese artillery fire
The President of the United States
in the name of The Congress
takes
pleasure in presenting the
Medal of Honor to
Davila, Rudolph B.
Rank and organization: Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company H, 7th Infantry.
Place and date: Artena, Italy, 28 May, 1944. Born: 27 April 1916, El Paso, TX Entered service
at: Los Angeles, Calif.
Citation:
Staff Sergeant Rudolph B. Davila distinguished
himself by extraordinary heroism in action, on 28 May 1944, near Artena, Italy. During the offensive which broke through the
German mountain strongholds surrounding the Anzio beachhead, Staff Sergeant Davila risked death to provide heavy weapons support
for a beleaguered rifle company. Caught on an exposed hillside by heavy, grazing fire from a well-entrenched German force,
his machine gunners were reluctant to risk putting their guns into action. Crawling fifty yards to the nearest machine gun,
Staff Sergeant Davila set it up alone and opened fire on the enemy. In order to observe the effect of his fire, Sergeant Davila
fired from the kneeling position, ignoring the enemy fire that struck the tripod and passed between his legs. Ordering a gunner
to take over, he crawled forward to a vantage point and directed the firefight with hand and arm signals until both hostile
machine guns were silenced. Bringing his three remaining machine guns into action, he drove the enemy to a reserve position
two hundred yards to the rear. When he received a painful wound in the leg, he dashed to a burned tank and, despite the crash
of bullets on the hull, engaged a second enemy force from the tank’s turret. Dismounting, he advanced 130 yards in short
rushes, crawled 20 yards and charged into an enemy-held house to eliminate the defending force of five with a hand grenade
and rifle fire. Climbing to the attic, he straddled a large shell hole in the wall and opened fire on the enemy. Although
the walls of the house were crumbling, he continued to fire until he had destroyed two more machine guns. His intrepid actions
brought desperately needed heavy weapons support to a hard-pressed rifle company and silenced four machine gunners, which
forced the enemy to abandon their prepared positions. Staff Sergeant Davila's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are
in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the United States
Army
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