Charles DeGlopper, Medal of Honor paratrooper at Normandy

Dec 20 , 2025

Charles DeGlopper, Medal of Honor paratrooper at Normandy

Charles N. DeGlopper Jr. bore the weight of his men’s lives in a single heartbeat. Flames lit the sky behind him. The fields of Normandy turned into deadly open ground. Enemy guns roared, and he stayed, standing—alone—drawing fire down onto himself. He held the line so the others could live. Then silence.

The Making of a Soldier: Faith and Duty

Born in 1921, Charles grew up in the quiet folds of Selden, New York—a small town where hard work and faith were foundation stones. Raised in a devout family, his life was framed by discipline and devotion to God’s call. The story of Charles is stitched with the kind of quiet integrity forged not in battle but in Sunday school classrooms and long family prayers.

“I’m just a guy doing his duty,” he reportedly said. No grandiose promises. No illusions of glory. Just a simple code: Protect your brother, stand firm, pay the ultimate price if necessary.

The Battle That Defined Him: Normandy, June 9, 1944

D-Day was a storm of steel and fire. But it was what came after that etched Charles’ name in eternity. The 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment fought bitterly to hold a strategic bridge at La Fière in Normandy.

The Americans faced a brutal German counterattack. They were ordered to fall back, but retreat meant exposure and slaughter. Someone had to cover the movement — someone had to buy time.

Charles volunteered.

Armed with only his M1 rifle, he held open ground as waves of enemy soldiers advanced. The German machine guns spewed bullets; men around him were cut down. Time slowed for DeGlopper. Every shot fired was a sentence to delay death’s grip on his unit.

He was the last American soldier covering the withdrawal.

He fell, riddled by enemy fire, but not before buying his comrades precious seconds. Seconds that meant lives saved.

“For gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty…” the Medal of Honor citation reads. "Single-handedly engaged the enemy to cover the withdrawal of his platoon." [1]

Recognition: Valor Immortalized

Posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on June 18, 1945, DeGlopper’s story traveled far beyond his home state of New York. His sacrifice was a beacon for the 82nd Airborne Division—embodying the fierce loyalty and relentless grit airborne troops carried into battle.

Brigadier General James M. Gavin, commander of the 82nd Airborne, called such acts “the highest form of bravery.”

Comrades remembered Charles not as a hero in sermons, but as a soldier who chose the path of selflessness because no one else could.

Legacy: The Measure of True Courage

The Charles N. DeGlopper Memorial Bridge near his hometown and the DeGlopper Monument at the National Infantry Museum stand as silent testaments.

His sacrifice reminds us courage isn’t always loud. Sometimes it’s the lone figure on a field, against impossible odds, holding the line until the last breath.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

That is the gospel DeGlopper lived by and died for—that love forged in fire and blood.

The battlefield is littered with forgotten names, but not his. Charles N. DeGlopper Jr. gave all that was left beneath the Normandy sky so that others might live to tell the story.

His sacrifice echoes through generations—punctuating the cost of freedom with unyielding clarity.

When smoke veils the battlefield, and death circles the fallen, courage rises not in the absence of fear, but in the refusal to be conquered by it.

That is the warrior’s legacy Charles DeGlopper leaves behind.

Sources

[1] U.S. Army Center of Military History, Medal of Honor Recipients: World War II (G–L) [2] 82nd Airborne Division Association, DeGlopper: The Last Stand at La Fière [3] National Infantry Museum, Charles N. DeGlopper Memorial [4] Congressional Medal of Honor Society, Charles N. DeGlopper Citation