The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Sergeant Wilbur E. Colyer (ASN: 154550), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 9 October 1918, while serving with Company A, 1st Engineers, 1st Division, in action at Verdun, France. Volunteering with two other soldiers to locate machinegun nests, Sergeant Colyer advanced on the hostile positions to a point where he was half surrounded by the nests, which were in ambush. He killed the gunner of one gun with a captured German grenade and then turned this gun on the other nests, silencing all of them before he returned to his platoon. He was later killed in action.