Captain Arlo L. Olson of the U.S. Army's 15th Infantry, 3rd Infantry Division, received the Congressional Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty during the crossing of the Volturno River in Italy on 13 October 1943 and the fighting that followed. As the drive across the river began, he and his company spearheaded the regiment's advance through 30 miles of mountainous enemy territory in 13 days. Leading from the front, he crossed the chest-deep river under pointblank machine-gun fire, reached the opposite bank, and killed the crew of a gun position with hand grenades. When another enemy machine gun opened fire on his company, he advanced on it in a slow, deliberate walk, survived hand-grenade attacks by five German soldiers at close range, killed them, took up a machine pistol, then closed with the position, killed nine more enemy soldiers, and captured the post. During the next 13 days he led combat patrols, served as his company's number one scout, and maintained unbroken contact with the enemy. On 27 October 1943 he led a platoon against a strongpoint, crawled close to the enemy, charged the position under continuous machine-gun fire, and killed the gun crew with his pistol, inspiring his men to overrun the position. He then led his company to the summit of Monte San Nicola and, though neighboring troops were forced to take cover, formed his men into a skirmish line and led an assault under intense automatic and small-arms fire that drove the enemy away. While reconnoitering defensive positions, he was fatally wounded, but despite severe pain he finished the reconnaissance, placed his men in the best defensive positions, refused medical aid until all of his men had been cared for, and died while being carried down the mountain.