Samuel Streit Coursen
It was just five years after his graduation from the West Point Military Academy that First Lieutenant Samuel Streit Coursen was killed in action at Kaesong Korea while saving the life of another soldier who was in mortal danger.
Coursen, the son of Wallace Melville Coursen, a principal in the New York accounting firm of Haskins & Sells, and Kathleen Howell Coursen, was born in Madison, NJ Aug. 4, 1926, after graduating from the Newark Academy, where he was known for his athletic accomplishments.
Coursen received an appointment to the Military Academy and was commissioned there in June, 1949. Shortly after, he married Evangeline Joy Sprague, the daughter of Naval Captain Albert Sprague who was the commanding officer at Naval Ammunition Depot at Lake Denmark, part of Picatinny Arsenel.
Coursen then underwent further schooling at Fort Riley, Kansas and Fort Benning, Georgia,before earning a promotion and deploying to the Far East Command, taking command of a platoon in Company C, 5th Cavalry Regiment of the First Calvary Division. The Regiment had been transferred from the Pacific theater to Korea four months earlier following the North Korean invasion that set off the Korean War.
Lieutenant Coursen and his unit were part of the UN offensive into North Korea, and was crossing the 38th parallel into North Korea two days before his heroic actions and his death.
The Korean War took the lives of 30 officers from the West Point Class of 1949, many of whom, like Coursen, were newly commissioned lieutenants serving as platoon commanders.
Lieutenant Coursen’s Medal of Honor was presented to his 14-month old son, Samuel, Jr. on June 21, 1951, with the presentation made at the Pentagon by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman and General of the Army Omar Bradley.
Last week, Lieutenant Coursen was honored by the Battleship New Jersey Museum in Camden, when his banner was raised and joined the Museum’s Index of America’s Heroes during the celebration of the 80th date of commissioning of the battleship.
A ferry, the Lieutenant Samuel S. Coursen, was christened in 1956 honoring the hero, and is a 172 foot long passenger and vehicle ferry operating between Manhattan and the former US Army headquarters at Fort Jay on Governors Island.
That boat has carried heads of state including Queen Elizabeth II, the King of Norway, Mikhail Gorbachev and President George H.W.Bush and carries thousands of visitors each year to Governor’s Island.
The Newark Academy where he attended high school, renamed its athletic ground the Coursen Memorial Field and kept the same name for its field when the school moved to Livingston in 1964.
Lieutenant Coursen’s name is on a bronze plaque at the Military Academy’s listing of West Point graduates who have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
He is buried at the US Military Academy cemetery at West Point.
Lieutenant Coursesn’s citation reads:
First Lieutenant Coursen distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action.
While Company C was attacking Hill 174 under heavy enemy small-arms fire, his platoon received enemy fire from close-range. The platoon returned the fire and continued to advance.
During this phase, one of his men moved into a well-camouflaged emplacement, which was thought to be unoccupied, and was wounded by the enemy who were hidden within the emplacement.
Seeing the soldier in difficulty, he rushed to the man’s aid and, without regard for his personal safety, engaged the enemy in hand-to-hand combat in an effort to protect his wounded comrade until he himself was killed.
When his body was recovered after the battle, seven enemy dead were found in the emplacement. As the result of 1st Lieutenant. Coursen’s violent struggle several of the enemies’ heads had been crushed with his rifle.
His aggressive and intrepid actions saved the life of the wounded man, eliminated the main position of the enemy roadblock, and greatly inspired the men in his command.
First Lieutenant Coursen’s extraordinary heroism and intrepidity reflect the highest credit on himself and are in keeping with the honored traditions of the military service.
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