James I. Mestrovitch

James I. Mestrovitch
James I. Mestrovitch
	Medal of Honor recipient
Born	May 22, 1894; Bay of Kotor, Austrian Littoral ; (modern Montenegro)
Died	November 4, 1918 (aged 24); France
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	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Seeing his company commander Iying wounded 30 yards in front of the line after his company had withdrawn to a sheltered position behind a stone wall, Sgt.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.