James I. Mestrovitch
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James I. Mestrovitch | |
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![]() Medal of Honor recipient | |
Born | Bay of Kotor, Austrian Littoral (modern Montenegro) | May 22, 1894
Died | November 4, 1918 France | (aged 24)
Allegiance | United States of America |
Service/ | United States Army |
Rank | Sergeant |
Unit | Company C, 111th Infantry, 28th Division |
Awards | Medal of Honor |
James I. Mestrovitch (22 May 1894 - 4 November 1918) was an American sergeant who received America's highest military decoration—the Medal of Honor— for his actions in World War I. Sgt Mestrovitch, an ethnic Croat,[1] was born in the Boka Kotorska, and after immigrating to the United States in 1913 lived in Fresno, California. He enlisted in the U.S. Army at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He died from the Spanish flu one week before the armistice.
Medal of Honor citation
- Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company C, 111th Infantry, 28th Division.
- Place and date: At Fismette, France, 10 August 1918.
- Entered service at: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Birth: Montenegro
- Nationality: Croatian [2]
- General Order No.20, Department of War, 1919.
Citation
Seeing his company commander Iying wounded 30 yards in front of the line after his company had withdrawn to a sheltered position behind a stone wall, Sgt. Mestrovitch voluntarily left cover and crawled through heavy machinegun and shell fire to where the officer lay. He took the officer upon his back and crawled to a place of safety, where he administered first-aid treatment, his exceptional heroism saving the officer's life.
See also
References
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History.
- "World War I Medal of Honor recipients". United States Army Center of Military History,. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
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: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
- "James I. Mestrovitch". Claim to Fame: Medal of Honor recipients. Find a Grave. Retrieved May 16, 2009.
- 1894 births
- Yugoslav emigrants to the United States
- American people of Croatian descent
- United States Army soldiers
- American military personnel of World War I
- United States Army Medal of Honor recipients
- Foreign-born Medal of Honor recipients
- 1918 deaths
- World War I recipients of the Medal of Honor
- World War I United States Army personnel stubs