Continuing the remembrance theme for Christmas week, Melvin Earl “Bud” Biddle earned the Medal of Honor on this day during the Battle of the Bulge, when he recon’ed the German lines alone, killed three snipers, & knocked out a machine gun nest. 

For his leadership that day, Biddle received the Medal of Honor on October 30, 1945. This is the famous occasion when President Truman told a Medal of Honor recipient, Biddle, that, “… I’d rather have one of these than be President.”

Biddle was badly wounded a week after his Medal of Honor actions, and he returned to the United States in spring 1945. He left the Army, married his childhood sweetheart and had two daughters, and worked for the VA before retiring. He passed away in 2010. Honor and remember Melvin Biddle!