William Sawelson

Sergeant, U.S. Army

Medal of Honor Recipient

World War I

Sergeant William Sawelson (5 August 1895 - 26 October 1918) was a U.S. Army soldier who was posthumously awarded the U.S. military's highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor, for his heroic actions during World War I.

Sergeant William Sawelson was born in Newark, NJ, and entered service at Harrison, NJ.

Medal of Honor

Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company M, 312th Infantry, 78th Division.

Place and date: At Grand-Pre, France, 26 October, 1918.

Citation: Hearing a wounded man in a shell hole some distance away calling for water, Sgt. Sawelson, upon his own initiative, left shelter and crawled through heavy machinegun fire to where the man lay, giving him what water he had in his canteen. He then went back to his own shell hole, obtained more water, and was returning to the wounded man when he was killed by a machinegun bullet.

The medal was posthumously presented to his father, Jacob L. Sawelson, at Governors Island.

Death and Burial

Sergeant William Sawelson was killed in action on 26 October 1918. He is buried at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial, Romagne, France.