Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company M, 35th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division. Place and date: Mount Austen, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, 10 January 1943. Entered service at: Winterport, Maine. Birth: Norwich, Conn. G.O. No.: 28, 5 June 1943.
Citation... For gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty. As leader of a machinegun section charged with the protection of other battalion units, his group was attacked by a superior number of Japanese, his gunner killed, his assistant gunner wounded, and an adjoining guncrew
put out of action. Ordered to withdraw from this hazardous position,
Sgt. Fournier refused to retire but rushed forward to the idle gun and,
with the aid of another soldier who joined him, held up the machinegun
by the tripod to increase its field action.
Fournier, William G.
