Arthur F. DeFranzo

Arthur Frederick DeFranzo (March 20, 1919 – June 10, 1944) was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in World War II.

Arthur F. DeFranzo
Born(1919-03-20)March 20, 1919
Saugus, Massachusetts
DiedJune 10, 1944(1944-06-10) (aged 25)
near Vaubadon, France
Place of burial
Riverside Cemetery
Saugus, Massachusetts
AllegianceUnited States of America
Service/branchUnited States Army
Years of service1940 - 1944
RankStaff Sergeant
Unit18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division
Battles/warsWorld War II
AwardsMedal of Honor

Biography

DeFranzo joined the Army from his birthplace of Saugus, Massachusetts in November 1940,[1] and by June 10, 1944 was serving as a Staff Sergeant in the 1st Infantry Division. On that day, near Vaubadon, France, he was wounded while rescuing an injured man from hostile fire. Despite his own injuries, he led an attack on the enemy positions and continued to advance and encourage his men even after being hit several more times. He destroyed an enemy machine gun position just before succumbing to his wounds.

For his actions, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor seven months later, on January 4, 1945.

DeFranzo's body returned to the United States in 1947. He laid in state at the Saugus Town Hall from December 8 to December 11, 1947. He was then given a military funeral at Riverside Cemetery in Saugus.[2]

Medal of Honor citation

Staff Sergeant DeFranzo's official Medal of Honor citation reads:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life, above and beyond the call of duty, on June 10, 1944, near Vaubadon, France. As scouts were advancing across an open field, the enemy suddenly opened fire with several machineguns and hit 1 of the men. S/Sgt. DeFranzo courageously moved out in the open to the aid of the wounded scout and was himself wounded but brought the man to safety. Refusing aid, S/Sgt. DeFranzo reentered the open field and led the advance upon the enemy. There were always at least 2 machineguns bringing unrelenting fire upon him, but S/Sgt. DeFranzo kept going forward, firing into the enemy and 1 by 1 the enemy emplacements became silent. While advancing he was again wounded, but continued on until he was within 100 yards of the enemy position and even as he fell, he kept firing his rifle and waving his men forward. When his company came up behind him, S/Sgt. DeFranzo, despite his many severe wounds, suddenly raised himself and once more moved forward in the lead of his men until he was again hit by enemy fire. In a final gesture of indomitable courage, he threw several grenades at the enemy machinegun position and completely destroyed the gun. In this action, S/Sgt. DeFranzo lost his life, but by bearing the brunt of the enemy fire in leading the attack, he prevented a delay in the assault which would have been of considerable benefit to the foe, and he made possible his company's advance with a minimum of casualties. The extraordinary heroism and magnificent devotion to duty displayed by S/Sgt. DeFranzo was a great inspiration to all about him, and is in keeping with the highest traditions of the armed forces.[3]

gollark: ``` A language based on the idea of communism. There would be only one great editor (a wiki or similar) and all programmers would write only one big program that does everything. There would be only one datatype that fits everything, so everything belongs to one single class. Functional programming is clearly based on the idea of communism. It elevates functions (things that do the work) to first class citizens, and it is a utopian endeavor aimed at abolishing all states. It is seen as inefficient and unpopular, but always has die-hard defenders, mostly in academia. Besides, ML stands for Marxism-Leninism. Coincidence? I think not. It should be called Soviet Script and the one big program can be called the Universal Soviet Script Repository or USSR for short. And they put all the packages together in one place (Hackage). It already exists and is called 'Web'. It already exists and is called 'Emacs'. Emacs is the one great editor, and the one big program (Emacs can do almost anything). The language is Emacs Lisp, which is functional, and almost everything is a list (the one great datatype/class). Unfortunately```
gollark: It's pronounced Piephoon, by the way.
gollark: Owwww, my eyes.
gollark: I personally use LineageOS, microG and the Yalp play store thing.
gollark: By "don't use google" I mean the search engine; I guess Android is also google, but if you use an AOSP ROM and use alternatives for google apps/services, it's fine.

See also

References
 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History.
  1. WWII Army Enlistment Records
  2. "Obituary". The Boston Daily Globe. December 9, 1947.
  3. "Medal of Honor recipients - World War II (A–F)". Medal of Honor citations. United States Army Center of Military History. June 8, 2009. Archived from the original on 6 March 2008. Retrieved February 28, 2008.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.