The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 2, 1926, takes pleasure in presenting the Soldier’s Medal to Sergeant Joseph Adler (ASN: 39253661), United States Army, for heroism not involving actual conflict with an enemy of the United States while serving with Battery A, 468th Anti-Aircraft Artillery (Automatic Weapons) Battalion (Self-Propelled), at *****, France, on 21 October 1944. When a Royal Air Force officer and British sergeant, riding in a quarter-ton truck, crashed through a guard rail of a bridge into the deep, swift, icy waters below, Sergeant Adler immediately proceeded to the scene from an adjacent gun position. The officer appeared temporarily on the surface of the water. Sergeant Adler unhesitatingly shed his clothes, dove into the cold water and attempted to rescue him. He repeatedly dove beneath the surface of the cold water for fifteen minutes and did not give up his attempts to save the officer until ordered to come out of the water.