Navy Federal Credit Union

Awards Received

  • Medal of Honor

    Service:

    United States Army

    Rank:

    Sergeant

    Regiment:

    305th Infantry Regiment

    Division:

    77th Infantry Division

    Action Date:

    May 15 & 16, 1945

    War Department, General Orders No. 71, July 17, 1946

    The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Sergeant Joseph E. Muller, United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty on May 15 and 16, 1945, while serving with Company B, 305th Infantry Regiment, 77th Infantry Division, in action at Ishimmi, Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands. When his platoon was stopped by deadly fire from a strongly defended ridge, Sergeant Muller directed men to points where they could cover his attack. Then through the vicious machinegun and automatic fire, crawling forward alone, he suddenly jumped up, hurled his grenades, charged the enemy, and drove them into the open where his squad shot them down. Seeing enemy survivors about to man a machinegun, he fired his rifle at point-blank range, hurled himself upon them, and killed the remaining four. Before dawn the next day, the enemy counterattacked fiercely to retake the position. Sergeant Muller crawled forward through the flying bullets and explosives, then leaping to his feet, hurling grenades and firing his rifle, he charged the Japs and routed them. As he moved into his foxhole shared with two other men, a lone enemy, who had been feigning death, threw a grenade. Quickly seeing the danger to his companions, Sergeant Muller threw himself over it and smothered the blast with his body, heroically sacrificing his life to save his comrades, he upheld the highest traditions of the military service.