Remembering a Hero on his birthday. Charles "Commando" E Kelly | World War II | U.S. Army | Medal of Honor Recipient
Charles E. Kelly: 23 September 1920 to 11 January 1985
For no particular reason, except that I find his story fascinating. He was the first enlisted soldier to receive the Medal of Honor in the European Theater in WWII.
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. On 13 September 1943, near Altavilla, Italy, Cpl. Kelly voluntarily joined a patrol which located and neutralized enemy machine-gun positions.
The official citation is informative, if dry, but worth clicking through and reading. The X post below covers about the last third of the citation.
Charles Kelly held off the Germans almost single-handed in a house in Italy, and when he ran low on other weapons, he pulled the pins on mortar shells and threw them by hand like giant grenades down the stairs at the enemy. He was the first American soldier in the European… pic.twitter.com/sie3vELunp
— Voices of WW2 (@VoicesofWW2) September 7, 2026
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