This sergeant killed 6 enemy soldiers despite being hit by multiple grenades

Cornelius H. Charlton spent much of his military career away from the front lines.

Born to a coal mining family in West Virginia, Charlton enlisted in the Army in 1946 at the age of 17 and was shipped out to allied-occupied Germany, where he served out his entire enlistment. The young sergeant was then assigned to an administrative position in occupied Japan after he reenlisted.

Soon after his 1950 arrival to Japan, U.S. involvement in the Korean War surged. It was then that Charlton decided he had spent enough time on the sidelines, and he subsequently requested to be moved to a combat unit in South Korea.

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