Charles DeGlopper, Medal of Honor Recipient Who Held the Line

Nov 20 , 2025

Charles DeGlopper, Medal of Honor Recipient Who Held the Line

The air was thick with gunfire and smoke — the line was collapsing. Men scrambled, wounded and weary, but there was no choice. Someone had to stand. Someone had to hold. Charles N. DeGlopper stepped forward into the storm. Alone. Against a blaze of enemy fire.

The Boy from Mechanicville, New York

Charles Norman DeGlopper wasn’t made by war. He was made long before the battlefield. Born in 1921 in a small town where grit was woven into the fabric of life. Raised in a working-class family with a strong faith that tempered his spirit—DeGlopper carried those roots with him like armor.

A devout Christian, his life was underpinned by a quiet code—love your neighbor as yourself. A Soldier who saw beyond the uniform, beyond the orders, to the men beside him. His sense of duty was not just to country, but to the brotherhood he bled for.

Holding the Line on D-Day+4: The Battle That Carved His Name

June 9, 1944. Four days after the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy. The 82nd Airborne Division, including DeGlopper’s 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, was locked in brutal combat near the town of Graignes.

The regiment had been ambushed, surrounded. The enemy pushed forward, intent on cutting off their retreat. The position was crumbling.

The order came to withdraw. But DeGlopper volunteered to cover the retreat.

With only his M1 rifle, he stood in the open fields beneath relentless German fire. For 10 minutes, he poured relentless fire into enemy positions, buying precious seconds for his comrades. His position was overrun. Hit multiple times, he fought to the end.

His sacrifice wasn’t in vain. Dozens of his men escaped because one man refused to back down.

Medal of Honor: Valor Etched in Blood

Posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions, the citation lays bare the brutal courage of that day:

“On June 9, 1944, near Graignes, France, Sgt. Charles N. DeGlopper distinguished himself by heroic actions. Covering the withdrawal of his comrades under intense enemy fire, he exposed himself to devastating small-arms fire—without regard for his own life—until mortally wounded.”

General Matthew Ridgway, commander of the 82nd Airborne, would later say, “DeGlopper’s sacrifice bought time and saved men. His actions epitomize the spirit of the American paratrooper."

The Legacy of a Warrior’s Heart

Charles DeGlopper did not survive the war. But his story lives—engraved in every soldier’s understanding of sacrifice. Holding the line alone, facing certain death, for the lives of others—that is the measure of valor.

A soldier’s scars never fade, but DeGlopper’s stand reminds us that some wounds bear a deeper kind of meaning. His courage mirrors a timeless truth:

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” — John 15:13

He didn’t seek glory. He sought to protect. To save the men he called family.

DeGlopper’s bleeding battlefield echoes through history—a hand stretched out in sacrifice and grit. His name carved in the soil of Normandy, in the pages of heroism, and in the hearts of those who fight still.

In remembering Charles DeGlopper, we remember what it truly means to stand when all else falls—to be the shield for others at your own cost. This is not just war. It is the essence of what it means to be a brother, a soldier, and a man.

Sources

1. U.S. Army Center of Military History, Medal of Honor Recipients: World War II (G-L) 2. Ambrose, Stephen E., Citizen Soldiers (Simon & Schuster, 1997) 3. 82nd Airborne Division Historical Archives, Graignes and the Evacuation 4. Ridgway, Matthew B., Soldier: The Memoirs of Matthew B. Ridgway (1948)