*STRYKER, STUART S.
Rank and Organization: Private First Class, U.S.
Army, Company E, 513th Parachute Infantry, 17th Airborne Division. Place and Date
Near Wesel, Germany, 24 March 1945. Entered Service at: Portland, Oreg. Birth.
Portland, Oreg. G.O. No.: 117, 11 December 1945.
Citation:
He was a platoon runner, when the unit assembled near Wesel, Germany after a descent east
of the Rhine. Attacking along a railroad, Company E reached a point about 250 yards from a
large building used as an enemy headquarters and manned by a powerful force of Germans
with rifles, machineguns, and 4 field pieces. One platoon made a frontal assault but was
pinned down by intense fire from the house after advancing only 50 yards. So badly
stricken that it could not return the raking fire, the platoon was at the mercy of German
machine gunners when Pfc. Stryker voluntarily left a place of comparative safety, and,
armed with a carbine, ran to the head of the unit. In full view of the enemy and under
constant fire, he exhorted the men to get to their feet and follow him. Inspired by his
fearlessness, they rushed after him in a desperate charge through an increased hail of
bullets. Twenty-five yards from the objective the heroic soldier was killed by the enemy
fusillades. His gallant and wholly voluntary action in the face of overwhelming firepower,
however, so encouraged his comrades and diverted the enemy's attention that other elements
of the company were able to surround the house, capturing more than 200 hostile soldiers
and much equipment, besides freeing 3 members of an American bomber crew held prisoner
there. The intrepidity and unhesitating self-sacrifice of Pfc. Stryker were in keeping
with the highest traditions of the military service.
