Medal of Honor Monday: Army Pfc. Foster J. Sayers

When a hillside full of Germans threatened to annihilate Army Pfc. Foster Joseph Sayers' exposed company in France during World War II, he took action and singlehandedly killed about a dozen enemy soldiers to help his comrades survive. Sayers lost his life in the chaos, but his heroics led him to receive the Medal of Honor.

Sayers was born to a single mother, Alice Sayers, on April 27, 1924, in Marsh Creek, Pennsylvania. According to a 1995 Centre Daily Times biographical article, he was taken from his mother at age 6 and placed in various foster homes in the area.

"He had an awful rough life," Sayers' son, Foster Sayers Jr., told the Centre Daily Times, a State College, Pennsylvania, newspaper. "He got shipped from one farm to another in the Blanchard area. He got treated poorly."

The younger Sayers said his father was made to work on his foster family's farm while the family's sons had breakfast, and he always ended up wearing oversized hand-me-downs.

Eventually, however, a nice woman took Sayers in, and his life got better. Folks who grew up with Sayers told the newspaper that he was a nice, quiet, strong young man who wasn't afraid of much.

By the time Sayers was drafted into the Army in March 1943, he'd been working at Piper Aircraft Corporation in Loch Haven, Pennsylvania. It was at that job that he met Ellen Gardner, who he got engaged to before being shipped to Camp Polk, Louisiana, to train with the 357th Infantry, 90th Infantry Division.

In the fall of that year, when Sayers returned home on furlough, he married Gardner, according to the Loch Haven newspaper The Express.

Months later, in the spring of 1944, Sayers was sent to France. When he left, no one was aware that his wife was pregnant, according to the Centre Daily Times.

By the time winter rolled around, Sayers and the soldiers of Company L were taking part in the Rhine winter offensive near Thionville, France, by the Luxembourg border.

On Nov. 12, 1944, the company was crossing a creek-sized body of water when they were attacked by a well-entrenched group of Germans on a hill. The enemy's position made it easy for them to quickly take out Allied soldiers who didn't have any cover.

If something wasn't done quickly, the company would be destroyed, so Sayers fearlessly stepped up. He ran toward the steep approach that housed the enemy and set up his machine gun about 20 yards from German soldiers. But, realizing that he needed his enemies' full attention for his comrades to survive, he jumped back up and, with his machine gun, charged through a hail of gunfire to the edge of the emplacement, taking out 12 German soldiers at close range.

Sayers then hid behind a log and continued firing at the enemy. He did his best to distract the Germans while his fellow soldiers made it to their objective at the crest of the hill. Unfortunately, he was killed by the heavy concentration of fire that was aimed at him during that effort.

Sayers' fearless assault allowed his company to sweep its way up the hill with minimal casualties and kill or capture every enemy soldier that remained.

"Everyone talked about what [Sayers] did. He saved most of our lives," George Zonge, who was in a unit accompanying Sayers, told the Centre Daily Times.

Zonge said Sayers didn't die immediately; they were able to evacuate him, but he died on the way to a hospital.

Sadly, while Sayers was fighting in France, his wife gave birth to their son, Foster Jr. The boy was 3 months old when his father died. News of his birth never reached Sayers. According to The Express newspaper, letters and pictures of the boy were returned unopened after his death.

On Nov. 7, 1945, Ellen Sayers received the Medal of Honor on her husband's behalf during a ceremony at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania.

Sayers was initially buried in France, but his remains were repatriated in 1949 and buried in Schenck Cemetery in Howard, Pennsylvania, near where he grew up. His body had to be moved to a new Schenck Cemetery in 1967, however, due to the building of a dam that flooded the area. That dam and accompanying reservoir were named in Sayers' honor.

In 1995, Sayers' Medal of Honor and other wartime artifacts were donated by his family to the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania.

Foster Sayers Jr. followed in his father's footsteps by serving in the Army for three years during the Vietnam War. Thanks to his dad's achievement, he wasn't required to serve in a combat zone, the Centre Daily Times said.