Ida Grove Soldier in Italy Honored for Heroic Act
With the Fifth Army, Italy.—S. Sgt. Donald M. Ferguson of Ida Grove, Ia., was awarded an oak leaf cluster to the Bronze Star for heroic achievement in action on the Fifth Army front in northern Italy.
Ferguson is a member of a medical battalion serving with the 34th Red Bull division.
Ferguson, a member of a four-man litter team, learned that a solider in an outpost had been seriously wounded by an enemy hand grenade. Aware of the fact that nay movement during daylight hours would draw intense enemy fire, Ferguson and his comrades made their way to the outpost, 300 yards away.
Ferguson and his companions carried the wounded soldier approximately one and one-fourth miles over a narrow and dangerous trail which was heavily mined on both sides and with an almost superhuman effort reached the aid station without stopping for a rest.
“The courage and devotion to duty displayed by Sgt. Ferguson and his comrades undoubtedly saved the life of their wounded comrade,” the citation read.
His brother, Otto H. Ferguson, lives on route 1, Ida Grove.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, April 6, 1945
