Trio Earns Medals of Honor Saving Tank Soldiers in WWI

By Katie Lange, Defense Media Activity

This blog is part of a weekly series called “Medal of Honor Monday,” in which we’ll highlight one of the 3,500 Medal of Honor recipients who have earned the U.S. military’s highest medal for valor.

It’s been 100 years since the United States fought in World War I, and therefore a century since any of our service members earned the highest medal for valor for their efforts there. While Medal of Honor Monday usually highlights the actions of just one brave soul per blog, today’s honorees are an exception.

From left: Army Sgt. John C. Latham, Sgt. Alan Eggers, Cpl. Thomas O’Shea

Army Sgt. John C. Latham, Sgt. Alan Eggers and Cpl. Thomas O’Shea should be honored together because the actions that earned them their medals were performed together. All three entered service in New Jersey, and they were together when they saved the lives of several men in France in 1918.

Latham was born in Windermere, England, in 1888, but eventually immigrated to the U.S. to join the Army. Eggers grew up in Saranac Lake, New York, before attending Cornell University. He and O’Shea, who grew up in New York City, both joined the Army from the New York National Guard.

The three men were in Machine Gun Company, 107th Infantry Regiment, 27th Division, when they found themselves fighting alongside the Allies in September 1918.

Latham, Eggers and O’Shea were part of the assault on the Hindenburg Line at the St. Quentin Canal Tunnel near Le Catelet, France, when, on Sept. 29, they became separated from their platoon. They took cover where they could, which ended up being in a shell hole within enemy lines.