For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty the Medal of Honor was awarded to PRIVATE HAROLD A. GARMAN United States Army
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Private Harold A. Garman, Company B, 5th Medical Battalion, 5th Infantry Division, distinguished himself on 25 August 1944, in the vicinity of Montereau, France, the enemy was sharply contesting any enlargement of the bridgehead which our forces had established on the northern bank of the Seine River in this sector. Casualties were being evacuated to the southern shore in assault boats paddled by litter bearers from a medical battalion. Private Garman, also a litter bearer in this battalion, was working on the friendly shore carrying the wounded from the boats to waiting ambulances. As one boatload of wounded reached midstream, a German machine gun suddenly opened fire upon it from a commanding position on the northern bank 100 yards away. All of the men in the boat immediately took to the water, except one man who was so badly wounded he could not rise from his litter. Two other patients, who were unable to swim because of their wounds, clung to the side of the boat. Seeing the extreme danger of these patients, Private Garman, without a moment's hesitation, plunged into the Seine. Swimming directly into a hail of machine-gun bullets, he rapidly reached the assault boat and then, while still under accurately aimed fire, towed the boat with great effort to the southern shore. This soldier's moving heroism not only saved the lives of the three patients, but so inspired his comrades that additional assault boats were immediately procured, and the evacuation of the wounded resumed. Private Garman's great courage and his heroic devotion to the highest tenants of the Medical Corps may be written with great pride in the annals of the corps.
