Max Elton Sawyer, son of Ernest H. Sawyer and Opal L. (Jennings) Sawyer was born April 21, 1925. The family moved to Detroit, Michigan where Ernest, a World War I Veteran, was employed by the post office. Opal died in 1928 when Max was three-years-old. On July 6, 1943, Max enlisted in the U.S. Army and attained the rank of TEC5. He was an Aid Man with the medical unit of the 35th Infantry, 2nd Battalion and was sent overseas to France. Max's unit found themselves engaged in a fierce battle on September 21, 1944. TEC5 Sawyer entered an open field to attend to a wounded soldier and was himself severely wounded by the enemy's small arms fire. Another Aid Man arrived came to the fallen soldier's sides but TEC5 Sawyer refused to be evacuated from the field.

TEC5 Sawyer was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. He was laid to rest beside his parents at Rose Hill Cemetery, Mount Ayr, Iowa. A small playground located near the Sawyers' former home in Detroit, Michigan, is named in Max's honor.

SOURCES:
cityliterate.com/go/?p=284, Andrea Gallucci

U.S. Rosters of WWII 1939-45, ancestry.com
Michigan WWII Casualties, ancestry.com


Compilation &submission by Sharon R. Becker, May of 2015