Arthur O Beyer
On the 20th of May 1909, Arthur was born in Rock Township, Iowa, where his parents had moved when they had emigrated from Luxembourg. Since his father died when Arthur was in the 8th grade, he went to work to help his mother support and his three siblings. When he enlisted in the Army on the 20th of February 1941, he was thirty-one years old and working as an auto mechanic. He volunteered to get his service out of the way and after a year, he was transferred to the 603rd Tank Destroyer Battalion due to his mechanical resume. Arthur deployed with Company C to England for training before landing at Utah Beach in July of 1944. It was his actions towards the end of the Battle of the Bulge, on the 15th of January 1945, that would later earn him the Medal of Honor. The citation reads:
He displayed conspicuous gallantry in action. His platoon, in which he was a tank-destroyer gunner, was held up by antitank, machine-gun, and rifle fire from enemy troops dug in along a ridge about 200 yards to the front. Noting a machine-gun position in this defense line, he fired upon it with his 76-mm gun killing one man and silencing the weapon. He dismounted from his vehicle and, under direct enemy observation, crossed open ground to capture the two remaining members of the crew. Another machine gun, about 250 yards to the left, continued to fire on him. Through withering fire, he advanced on the position. Throwing a grenade into the emplacement, he killed one crew member and again captured the two survivors. He was subjected to concentrated small-arms fire but, with great bravery, he worked his way a quarter mile along the ridge, attacking hostile soldiers in their foxholes with his carbine and grenades. When he had completed his self-imposed mission against powerful German forces, he had destroyed two machine-gun positions, killed eight of the enemy, and captured 18 prisoners, including two bazooka teams. Cpl. Beyer's intrepid action and unflinching determination to close with and destroy the enemy eliminated the German defense line and enabled his task force to gain its objective.
By April of 1945, Arthur and the 603rd reached Buchenwald, one of Germany’s first and largest concentration camps within its borders, and was present for its liberation. He remained in Germany as part of the occupation force until he was given the option to receive the Medal of Honor from his theater commander or from the President, to which he chose the flight back to the States. On the 23rd of August 1945, Arthur received the Medal of Honor from President Truman in a ceremony at the White House. He left the Army at the rank of Sergeant and moved to Buffalo, North Dakota, to work on a farm before purchasing his own 40 acre farm in Minnesota. Arthur married Marion Hicks in 1962 and the couple attended a special reception at the White House in May of 1963 that was hosted by President Kennedy. Less than two years later, on the 16th of February 1965, Arthur Otto Beyer died at the age of 55. He is buried with his parents in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Saint Ansgar, Iowa.
