William Sawelson, Medal of Honor Recipient
In the face of the war raging in Israel today, it is also important to remember that Jewish men have fought in every war in the United States and brought honor to themselves for their bravery and their dedication to their fellow man.
Since the Congressional Medal of Honor was first presented after the Civil War, 18 military members of the Jewish faith have been presented with the highest award for military bravery awarded by the United States. Jewish military have earned Medals of Honor in the Civil War, the Indian and Haitian Campaigns, World Wars 1 and II, Vietnam, Korea and the War on Terrorism.
Among them is New Jersey native William Sawelson who received his Medal of Honor for crawling through machine gun fire to give a dying soldier a canteen of water. He was the only New Jersey native among the four Jewish soldiers who received the Medal of Honor during the First World War.
Sawelson, who was born in Newark in Aug. 5, 1895, was serving with the Army in France as a sergeant with Company M 312th Infantry of the 78th Division, known as the Lighting Division.
Sgt. Sawelson had been serving in No Man’s Land with the Lightning Division at Grand Pre, France as a supply sergeant. When he heard a comrade calling for water he lost no time in crawling through enemy fire to give him his canteen. It was when he was returning to the soldier with more water that he was struck by enemy fire. Both he and the man he was giving aid to died on the battlefield.
In April, 1919, General Jack Pershing was called upon to present 43 Distinguished Service Cross awards to members of the 78th Division for a variety of acts of bravery and heroism during World War I. At the same time, ,General Pershing was requested to present the Division’s sole Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously to Sgt Sawelson. Reports in all newspapers at that time said the army sergeant’s bravery and attention to the needs of a fellow soldier would go down in history.
The Sergeant’s Medal of Honor is accredited to Harrison, where he first entered the Army, in Hudson County.
Sgt. Sawelson is buried at Meuse-Argonne Cemetery at Romagne Meuse, France.
His citation reads:
CITATION
Hearing a wounded man in a shell hole some distance away calling for water, Sgt. Sawelson, upon his own initiative, left shelter and crawled through heavy machine-gun fire to where the man lay, giving him what water he had in his canteen. He then went back to his own shell hole, obtained more water, and was returning to the wounded man when he was killed by a machine-gun bullet.
Want to read about other Recipients of the Medal of Honor from New Jersey? Click HERE
