The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Private First Class Patrick L. Kessler, United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty on 23 May 1944, while serving with Company K, 3d Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 3d Infantry Division, in action at Ponte Rotto, Italy. Private First Class Kessler, acting without orders, raced 50 yards through a hail of machinegun fire, which had killed five of his comrades and halted the advance of his company, in order to form an assault group to destroy the machinegun. Ordering three men to act as a base of fire, he left the cover of a ditch and snaked his way to a point within 50 yards of the enemy machinegun before he was discovered, whereupon he plunged headlong into the furious chain of automatic fire. Reaching a spot within six feet of the emplacement he stood over it and killed both the gunner and his assistant, jumped into the gun position, overpowered and captured a third German after a short struggle. The remaining member of the crew escaped, but Private First Class Kessler wounded him as he ran. While taking his prisoner to the rear, this soldier saw two of his comrades killed as they assaulted an enemy strongpoint, fire from which had already killed ten men in the company. Turning his prisoner over to another man, Private First Class Kessler crawled 35 yards to the side of one of the casualties, relieved him of his BAR and ammunition and continued on toward the strongpoint, 125 yards distant. Although two machineguns concentrated their fire directly on him and shells exploded within ten yards, bowling him over, Private First Class Kessler crawled 75 yards, passing through an antipersonnel minefield to a point within 50 yards of the enemy and engaged the machineguns in a duel. When an artillery shell burst within a few feet of him, he left the cover of a ditch and advanced upon the position in a slow walk, firing his BAR from the hip. Although the enemy poured heavy machinegun and small arms fire at him, Private First Class Kessler succeeded in reaching the edge of their position, killed the gunners, and captured 13 Germans. Then, despite continuous shelling, he started to the rear. After going 25 yards, Private First Class Kessler was fired upon by two snipers only 100 yards away. Several of his prisoners took advantage of this opportunity and attempted to escape; however, Private First Class Kessler hit the ground, fired on either flank of his prisoners, forcing them to cover, and then engaged the two snipers in a fire fight, and captured them. With this last threat removed, Company K continued its advance, capturing its objective without further opposition. Private First Class Kessler was killed in a subsequent action.