Donald Rudolph Sr., 85; Medal of Honor Winner

BOVEY, Minn. — Donald E. Rudolph Sr., who received a Medal of Honor for bravery in action against Japanese troops in the Philippines during World War II, has died. He was 85.

Rudolph died Thursday of complications from Alzheimer’s disease, said Itasca County Veterans Services Officer Marvin Ott, who spoke with Rudolph’s wife, Helen, on Friday. Rudolph had been ill for several years.

President Truman presented Rudolph with the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor, on Aug. 23, 1945.

On Feb. 5 of that year, Rudolph, then an Army technical sergeant, was administering battlefield first aid to comrades on Luzon island in the northern Philippines when his unit came under fierce enemy fire, according to his Medal of Honor citation.

Alone and protecting himself with grenades, he crawled across the battlefield to a culvert and killed three enemy soldiers concealed there. He then worked his way across open terrain toward a line of enemy pillboxes, which had trained heavy fire on his company and immobilized it.

At the first pillbox, he tore open the wood-and-tin covering with his bare hands and dropped a grenade through the opening, killing the enemy gunners. With supporting fire from several riflemen, Rudolph made his way to the second pillbox. He pierced its top with a mattock and dropped a grenade through the hole, killing more enemy troops. He attacked and neutralized six more pillboxes.

Then, when his unit came under fire from a tank, he climbed onto the tank and dropped a white phosphorus grenade through the turret, killing the crew.

According to the U.S. Army Center of Military History, “Rudolph cleared a path for an advance which culminated in one of the most decisive victories of the Philippine campaign.”

Promoted to second lieutenant, he later sustained shrapnel wounds.

As a recipient of the prestigious medal, Rudolph with his wife attended several presidential inaugurations, where he met Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton and George W. Bush.

After retiring from the Army in 1963, he worked for the Veterans Administration as a veterans benefit counselor until retiring in 1976.

Years later, Rudolph reflected on his act of heroism.

“I’ve said many times that I really don’t know why I did it or why I got the medal,” he told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “But I knew I had to do it. Otherwise we were going to lose more men.”

He is survived by his wife, a son and three grandchildren.