Medal of Honor Monday: Army 2nd Lt. Walter D. Ehlers

Army 2nd Lt. Walter D. Ehlers served in Europe and North Africa as an infantryman during World War II.

He was born, May 7, 1921, on a farm in Junction City, Kansas, to John and Marie Ehlers. He married Dorothy Decker in 1955. They had three children and many grandchildren. 

Ehlers and his older brother Roland enlisted in the Army in October 1940 and completed basic training at the Presidio of San Francisco. 

They served together in the 1st Infantry Division, fighting in North Africa from November 1942 to May 1943, and in Sicily in July and August 1943. 

After Sicily, the brothers were split up and assigned to different units to lessen the chance that both would be killed. Both were squad leaders with the rank of sergeant during the June 6, 1944, D-Day landings on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France.

The landing craft that Roland was on was hit by a German artillery round, just as it hit the beach, killing him and his entire squad.

That day, Ehlers led his squad — 3rd Squad, 3rd Platoon, Company L, 3rd Battalion, 18th Infantry — across the beach and up a bluff, where they captured German machine gunners manning a pillbox. 

On June 9, 1944, Ehlers was leading his squad through a field when they were ambushed by German machine guns. Ehlers ran around the German flank, killing a number of them. 

The next day, his squad crossed an open field toward enemy positions. When the Germans opened fire, Ehlers and his automatic rifleman jumped up out of cover and began shooting into enemy positions, drawing all attention to themselves while the rest of the men escaped. Although he was wounded, Ehlers carried a wounded comrade to the rear for treatment. 

His Medal of Honor is for valor on those two days. 

Shortly thereafter, Ehlers was promoted to staff sergeant and then to second lieutenant, in recognition of his leadership. In March 1945, he led his platoon across the Rhine River at the bridge over Remagen, Germany. The following month, he was wounded in the leg and hip by friendly fire. 

His Medal of Honor was presented to him by Army Lt. Gen. John C.H. Lee in Paris. Lee had also made the D-Day landings.

After World War II ended, Ehlers moved to California and worked for the Veterans Administration. 

On June 6, 1994, marking the 50th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, Ehlers returned to France and gave a speech on Omaha Beach. President Bill Clinton and Queen Elizabeth were also in attendance. 

“I pray that the price we paid on this beach will never be mortgaged, that my grandsons and granddaughters will never face the terror and horror that we faced here,” Ehlers said in his speech. “But they must know that without freedom there is no life, and that the things most worth living for may sometimes demand dying for.”  

Ehlers appeared in the 1955 film “The Long Gray Line,” starring Tyrone Power. Power served in the Marine Corps during World War II. 

Ehlers died Feb. 20, 2014. He was the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient who participated in the D-Day landing in Normandy. 

He is buried at Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California. His medal is on display at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.