Paul L Bolden
Paul was born on the 15th of June 1922 in the house of his parents in Hobbs Island, Alabama. Four months after his twentieth birthday, he enlisted in the US Army and was soon deployed to Europe in support of World War 2. Paul was a Staff Sergeant with Company I, 120th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division when he displayed actions that would later earn him the Medal of Honor. The citation reads:
He voluntarily attacked a formidable enemy strongpoint in Petit-Coo, Belgium, on 23 December 1944, when his company was pinned down by extremely heavy automatic and small-arms fire coming from a house 200 yards to the front. Mortar and tank artillery shells pounded the unit, when SSgt. Bolden and a comrade, on their own initiative, moved forward in a hail of bullets to eliminate the ever-increasing fire from the German position. Crawling ahead to close with what they knew was a powerfully armed, vastly superior force, the pair reached the house and took up assault positions, SSgt. Bolden under a window, his comrade across the street where he could deliver covering fire. In rapid succession, SSgt. Bolden hurled a fragmentation grenade and a white phosphorous grenade into the building; and then, fully realizing that he faced tremendous odds, rushed to the door, threw it open, and fired into 35 SS troopers who were trying to reorganize themselves after the havoc wrought by the grenades. Twenty Germans died under fire of his submachine gun before he was struck in the shoulder, chest, and stomach by part of a burst which killed his comrade across the street. He withdrew from the house, waiting for the surviving Germans to come out and surrender. When none appeared in the doorway, he summoned his ebbing strength, overcame the extreme pain he suffered, and boldly walked back into the house, firing as he went. He had killed the remaining 15 enemy soldiers when his ammunition ran out. SSgt. Bolden's heroic advance against great odds, his fearless assault, and his magnificent display of courage in reentering the building where he had been severely wounded cleared the path for his company and insured the success of its mission.
Paul returned home just after the end of the war in Europe and was married to Violet Alexander with whom they had five children. He then received the Medal of Honor from President Truman in a ceremony at the White House on the 23rd of August 1945. When Paul exited the Army in 1945, he had reached the rank of Master Sergeant and had also received one Silver Star and three Bronze Stars for his actions during the war. Paul Luther Bolden died at the age of 56 on the 21st of May 1979 after surgery of a brain tumor. He is buried with his wife, his parents, and four of his five children in the Moon Cemetery in Owens Cross Roads, Alabama.
