John W. Collier

Silencing a machine gun on a Korean ridge

John Walton Collier was born on 3 April 1929 in Worthington, Kentucky. He served as a corporal with Company C, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division during the Korean War.

On 19 September 1950 near Chindoing-ni, Korea, Collier and three comrades volunteered to attack a machine-gun position blocking their company's advance. After two unsuccessful attempts, he moved ahead under fire and destroyed the position. Returning to his squad, he warned his comrades of an incoming grenade and covered its explosion with his body. He died that day.

Collier received the Medal of Honor posthumously. General Omar Bradley presented it to his father at the Pentagon on 21 June 1951. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, and his medal is held by the Highlands Museum and Discovery Center in Ashland, Kentucky.

Medal of Honor citation

Cpl. Collier, Company C, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action. While engaged in an assault on a strategic ridge strongly defended by a fanatical enemy, the leading elements of his company encountered intense automatic-weapons and grenade fire. Cpl. Collier and three comrades volunteered and moved forward to neutralize an enemy machine-gun position which was hampering the company's advance, but they were twice repulsed.

On the third attempt, Cpl. Collier, despite heavy enemy fire and grenade barrages, moved to an exposed position ahead of his comrades, assaulted and destroyed the machine-gun nest, killing at least four enemy soldiers. As he returned down the rocky, fire-swept hill and joined his squad, an enemy grenade landed in their midst. Shouting a warning to his comrades, he, selflessly and unhesitatingly, threw himself upon the grenade and smothered its explosion with his body.

This intrepid action saved his comrades from death or injury. Cpl. Collier's supreme, personal bravery, consummate gallantry, and noble self-sacrifice reflect untold glory upon himself and uphold the honored traditions of the military service.