"No Orders Needed: The Valor of Staff Sergeant Walter Ehlers"
While others looked to their leaders for direction, Staff Sergeant Walter Ehlers was the direction—charging headlong into fire, alone, again and again. Not because he was told to, but because it had to be done.
June 10, 2025
D-Day +3: Near Goville, France — June 9–10, 1944
Staff Sergeant Walter D. Ehlers of the U.S. First Infantry Division—the legendary "Big Red One"—didn’t wait for orders. He led with instinct, grit, and a fearless resolve forged in battle.
On June 9, Ehlers advanced ahead of his squad into the chaos of Normandy. He single-handedly ambushed a German patrol, eliminating four enemy soldiers before crawling under heavy fire to neutralize a machine gun nest. Without pause, he charged into a mortar position, killed three more, and scattered the rest. Moments later, he pressed forward once again—this time into the teeth of another machine gun emplacement. Outnumbered, exposed, and undeterred, Ehlers rose and silenced it—alone.
That was just the first day.
By June 10, his platoon was cut off deep behind enemy lines. Ordered to fall back under a torrent of German fire, Ehlers refused to retreat until every one of his men was safe. He laid down suppressive fire to cover their withdrawal, took a bullet in the process, and still managed to carry his wounded automatic rifleman to safety. Then, bleeding and under mortar fire, he went back—alone—to retrieve the soldier’s weapon.
He declined evacuation. He had his wounds patched—and returned to the fight.
This kind of courage doesn’t come from rank. It doesn’t come from training. It comes from within.
We honor the extraordinary valor of Staff Sergeant Walter D. Ehlers, Medal of Honor recipient and a true embodiment of the Big Red One’s indomitable spirit.
