08/18/2026
West Virginian Medal of Honor recipient.
On this day, 82 years ago, August 17, 1944, 34-year-old Staff Sergeant Stanley Bender found his men pinned down by a blistering barrage of German machine gun fire.
The soldiers of Company E, 7th Infantry Regiment, were completely paralyzed near the town of La Londe-les-Maures in southern France.
Bender, a former West Virginia coal miner and Chicago taxi driver, knew he had to locate the invisible enemy before his squad was slaughtered.
He scrambled onto the exposed hull of a knocked out tank to get a clear vantage point.
Lethal machine gun bursts immediately tracked his movement.
Bullets hammered the metal turret and violently ricocheted directly at his boots.
He completely ignored the withering hail of lead.
Bender stood perfectly upright on the metal wreckage in full view of the enemy for over two harrowing minutes.
He memorized the exact locations of the enemy gunners entrenched on a knoll 200 yards away.
The combat hardened veteran of the North Africa, Sicily, and Italy campaigns then climbed down and ordered his squad to lay covering fire.
He led his men down an irrigation ditch into a terrifying gauntlet of heavy fire.
German bullets blanketed their path and severely wounded four of his men in the first 50 yards.
Enemy soldiers began hurling fragmentation grenades down into the ditch.
Bender stood his ground in the exploding earth until his squad caught up.
He then abandoned the meager cover and executed a lone flanking maneuver toward the rear of the enemy knoll.
He walked deliberately across 40 yards of entirely open ground.
He marched straight through a chaotic storm of both friendly and enemy gunfire.
Bender closed in on the first machine gun nest and neutralized it with a single, lethal rifle burst.
He pushed deeper into the hostile strong point as grenades detonated on all sides.
He closed the 25 yard gap to a second machine gun position.
The desperate two man German crew swiveled their weapon and fired two point blank bursts directly at his chest.
Bender walked calmly through the deadly stream of lead.
He stepped right up to the edge of the fortified pit and swiftly dispatched both enemy gunners.
He waved his men forward into the artillery craters and marched another 35 yards to eliminate a third enemy rifleman.
His absolute fearlessness galvanized the entire assault company.
The American troops erupted from their positions with furious shouts and overwhelmed the German roadblock.
They swept into the town to destroy two antitank guns.
His men killed 37 German soldiers and took 26 prisoners.
This single attack captured three intact bridges over the Maravenne River and seized total control of the surrounding high ground.
The press would later dub this humble Lithuanian American a one man army for his astonishing courage.
He received the Medal of Honor, the Bronze Star, and the French Croix de Guerre for his brutal assault.
Bender survived the bloody conflict but carried German shrapnel in his chest for the rest of his life.
He returned home to work quietly for the Veterans Administration in Beckley, West Virginia.
A towering bridge on the West Virginia Turnpike was proudly named in his honor.
Staff Sergeant Stanley Bender died on June 22, 1994, at the age of 84.
He now rests eternally at the High Lawn Memorial Park in Oak Hill, West Virginia.
