Joseph E. Muller

Seized a ridge and shielded his comrades from grenade blast.

Joseph E. Muller served as a sergeant in Company B, 305th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division. Near Ishimmi, Okinawa, on May 15 and 16, 1945, he advanced alone against a defended ridge, using grenades and rifle fire to overcome enemy troops. He later repelled a counterattack against the captured position.

When a grenade landed in the foxhole he shared with two soldiers, Muller covered it with his body and died saving them. His actions earned a posthumous Medal of Honor. Born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, on June 23, 1908, he was buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

Medal of Honor citation

He displayed conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty. When his platoon was stopped by deadly fire from a strongly defended ridge, he directed men to points where they could cover his attack. Then through the vicious machine-gun and automatic fire, crawling forward alone, he suddenly jumped up, hurled his grenades, charged the enemy, and drove them into the open where his squad shot them down. Seeing enemy survivors about to man a machine gun, he fired his rifle at point-blank range, hurled himself upon them, and killed the remaining four. Before dawn the next day, the enemy counterattacked fiercely to retake the position. Sgt. Muller crawled forward through the flying bullets and explosives, then leaping to his feet, hurling grenades, and firing his rifle, he charged the Japs and routed them. As he moved into his foxhole shared with two other men, a lone enemy, who had been feigning death, threw a grenade. Quickly seeing the danger to his companions, Sgt. Muller threw himself over it and smothered the blast with his body. Heroically sacrificing his life to save his comrades, he upheld the highest traditions of the military service.