Thomas W. Dearolf

The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Thomas W. Dearolf, Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy while serving with Company A, 24th Reconnaissance Squadron, in action against enemy forces on 2 March 1945, in Germany. During an attack on Neurath, an important enemy communications hub, Sergeant Dearolf’s platoon was halted by heavy hostile fire. He immediately maneuvered his armored car and directed point-blank fire at enemy artillery pieces. Pursuing the withdrawing Germans, he destroyed four 240-mm. howitzers, three half-tracks, one 38-mm. gun and captured seventy prisoners. Sergeant Dearolf’s courage and aggressiveness, which enabled his unit to seize its objective, exemplify the highest traditions of the military forces of the United States and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.