Rank and organization:
Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army, 30th Infantry, 3d Infantry
Division.
Place and date:
Near St. Die, France, 28 October 1944.
Entered service at:
Port Arthur, Texas
Birth:
Port Arthur, Texas
G.O. No.: 20,
29 March 1945.
Religion: Catholic
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| Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity
at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty.Despite
intense machine-gun fire and his own safety, in the course of the action,
he personally killed 9 Germans, eliminated 3 enemy machine-guns, vanquished
a specialized force which was armed with automatic weapons and grenade
launchers, cleared the woods of hostile elements, and reopened the
severed supply lines to the assault companies of his battalion. |
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When his company
was stopped in its effort to drive through the Mortagne Forest to reopen
the supply line to the isolated third battalion, S/Sgt. Adams braved the
concentrated fire of machineguns in a lone assault on a force of German
troops.
Although his company
had progressed less than 10 yards and had lost 3 killed and 6 wounded,
S/Sgt. Adams charged forward dodging from tree to tree firing a borrowed
BAR from the hip. Despite intense machinegun fire which the enemy directed
at him and rifle grenades which struck the trees over his head showering
him with broken twigs and branches, S/Sgt. Adams made his way to within
10 yards of the closest machinegun and killed the gunner with a hand grenade.
An enemy soldier threw hand grenades
at him from a position only 10 yards distant; however, S/Sgt. Adams dispatched
him with a single burst of BAR fire. Charging into the vortex of the enemy
fire, he killed another machinegunner at 15 yards range with a hand grenade
and forced the surrender of 2 supporting infantrymen.
Although the remainder of the
German group concentrated the full force of its automatic weapons fire
in a desperate effort to knock him out, he proceeded through the woods
to find and exterminate 5 more of the enemy.
Finally, when the third German machinegun
opened up on him at a range of 20 yards, S/Sgt. Adams killed the gunner
with BAR fire. In the course of the action, he personally killed 9 Germans,
eliminated 3 enemy machineguns, vanquished a specialized force which was
armed with automatic weapons and grenade launchers, cleared the woods
of hostile elements, and reopened the severed supply lines to the assault
companies of his battalion.
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