Garlin Murl Conner

Early life

Conner was born on 2 June 1919 in Clinton County, Kentucky.

Army service

Conner was a selectee for military and entered the U.S. Army on 1 March 1941 in Louisville, Kentucky and completed his basic training at Fort Lewis. He deployed overseas as a member of K Company, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division. He served in French Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Sicily, Italy and France.

Conner was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for action against enemy forces on 24 January 1945 near Houssen, France. Through the pictures, medals and testimony of Conner's superior officers, including Maj. Gen. Lloyd Ramsey, the story of Conner's heroic actions more than 50 years earlier in France came back to life. Earlier that day, Conner, who had been badly wounded in the hip, sneaked away from a field hospital and made his way back to his unit's camp. His commanding officer was seeking a volunteer for a suicide mission: Run 400 yards directly toward the enemy while unreeling telephone wire all the way to trenches on the front line. From that point, the volunteer would be able to call in targeting coordinates for mortar fire., Conner grabbed the spool of wire and took off amid intense enemy fire. He made it to the ditch, where he stayed in contact with his unit for three hours in near-zero-degree weather as a ferocious onslaught of German tanks and infantry bore down on him.

"My God, he held off 600 Germans and six tanks coming right at him," Chilton marveled. "When they got too close, his commander told him to vacate and instead, he says, 'Blanket my position.'"

The request meant Conner was calling for artillery strikes as he was being overrun, risking his life in order to draw friendly fire that would take out the enemy, too, during which time he directed his men for three hours by telephone. During the action, Conner killed 50 German soldiers with return fire. Lt. Harold Wigetman credited Conner with saving the 3rd Battalion.

He was wounded seven times. After his unit was sent to occupied Austria, Conner was sent back to the U.S. for rest prior to being sent to fight in the Pacific theater. The War ended before he could be sent overseas a second time. During his service, Conner received a battlefield commission as a second lieutenant and was subsequently promoted to first lieutenant.

Later life and death

Conner married Pauline Wells on 9 July 1945. They had one son, Paul, one grandson and three granddaughters and lived in Albany, Kentucky. Conner was a businessman in Kentucky and was active in veterans organizations. He was handicapped from his war wounds and from heart surgery. Conner died in 1998. In 2012, the U.S. Army honored Conner by designating a portion of a new maintenance facility at Fort Benning, Georgia as Conner Hall.

Posthumous Medal of Honor campaign

Pauline Conner waged a seventeen-year campaign to gain Garlin the Medal of Honor for the action on 24 January 1945 in France that resulted in his being awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. On 11 March 2014, U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell ruled that Pauline had waited too long to submit her most recent request.

There is no doubt that Lt. Conner should have been awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions. One of the most disappointing regrets of my career is not having the Medal of Honor awarded to the most outstanding soldier I've ever had the privilege of commanding.

In late October 2015, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the parties into mediation. The Army's Board for Correction of Military Records recommended Connor for the Medal of Honor. The action is pending.