The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Sergeant William Sawelson (ASN: 1752909), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 26 October 1918, while serving with Company M, 312th Infantry, 78th Division, in action at Grand-Pre, France. Hearing a wounded man in a shell hole some distance away calling for water, Sergeant Sawelson, upon his own initiative, left shelter and crawled through heavy machinegun fire to where the man lay, giving him what water he had in his canteen. He then went back to his own shell hole, obtained more water, and was returning to the wounded man when he was killed by a machinegun bullet.