Stuart S. Stryker

He ran from cover and led the men into the machine-gun fire.

Stuart Stanton Stryker was born in Portland, Oregon, on 30 October 1924. He joined the United States Army in July 1943 and trained as a paratrooper. Assigned to Company E, 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division, he served in Europe during the final winter of the Second World War.

In March 1945 his division prepared for Operation Varsity, the airborne assault supporting the crossing of the Rhine. The operation would put parachute and glider troops east of the river, close to the German positions they had to overcome. Stryker was a private first class and served as a platoon runner, carrying information between men who could become separated in the confusion of a landing and attack.

On 24 March, after the drop near Wesel, Company E approached a large building used as a German headquarters. It was defended by several machine guns and a substantial garrison. The company deployed for an attack from roughly 250 yards away, but the platoon assigned to the frontal assault was stopped after advancing only a short distance. Heavy fire held the men against the ground.

Stryker left cover with his carbine and ran to the front. Calling the men to follow, he led a charge toward the building. The defenders concentrated on the assault. German fire killed him about twenty-five yards from the objective, but the movement had drawn attention away from the rest of his company.

His Medal of Honor citation explains that this diversion enabled other elements to surround the headquarters. More than two hundred German soldiers were captured, and three American bomber crewmen held inside were freed. The citation credits Stryker's immediate decision and self-sacrifice with making that success possible (official citation transcription: https://www.cmohs.org/recipients/stuart-s-stryker).

Stryker was twenty years old. His Medal of Honor was awarded posthumously, and his remains were eventually buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery at San Bruno, California. He did not survive to see the end of the European war or the return of his division.

In 2002 the Army named its Stryker armoured vehicle in honour of him and Robert F. Stryker, an unrelated Medal of Honor recipient killed in Vietnam. The shared name carries forward the memory of two enlisted soldiers, including the young Oregon paratrooper whose last charge opened the way for his company and the prisoners it rescued.