When Army Sgt. James Mestrovitch moved to the U.S. from Europe, he didn't expect to return as an interpreter or warrior; however, serving as the former inspired him to achieve the latter. During World War I, he helped save the life of his commanding officer, which led to his Medal of Honor.
Mestrovitch was born May 22, 1894, in a part of Yugoslavia now known as Montenegro. He had two brothers, both of whom also served in World War I, but for different countries.
Mestrovitch immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1910s when he was still a teenager. He lived in Fresno, California, for a time with his uncle and his brother Peter, before moving to Pittsburgh, where he worked as a bookkeeper at a hotel.
In late 1914, a typhus epidemic broke out in Serbia, near where Mestrovitch grew up, so he joined a delegation of American doctors and nurses who went to help. Typhus is an infectious disease spread by fleas, lice and chiggers.
Mestrovitch worked as an interpreter during the humanitarian effort and later said that the compassion he witnessed during that time from the Americans led him to join the Pennsylvania National Guard, which he did when he returned to the U.S. in June 1916.
He was initially assigned to the 18th Pennsylvania Infantry and served along the U.S.-Mexico border. But by late April 1917, the U.S. had officially joined World War I, so the 18th was absorbed into the regular Army's 28th Infantry Division. Mestrovitch was assigned to the 111th Infantry Regiment.
In May 1918, Mestrovitch's division was deployed with the American Expeditionary Forces to join the fighting in Europe.
On Aug. 10, 1918, Mestrovitch was with Company C in Fismette, France, when they were attacked by enemy forces. As his company withdrew to a sheltered position behind a stone wall, Mestrovitch looked back and realized that his company commander was lying wounded about 30 yards away.
Mestrovitch refused to leave the officer, so he crawled back into exposed territory. Through heavy machine-gun fire and shelling, Mestrovitch pitched the officer onto his back and crawled back toward the wall. The young sergeant was hit by gunfire during the move, but he still managed to get to safety and perform first aid on the wounded officer, who survived thanks to Mestrovitch's brave actions.
According to Pennsylvania National Guard records, Mestrovitch was erroneously reported as killed in action in that incident. He later wrote to his uncle about what had happened while he was recovering in a hospital.
"They operated twice on me," Mestrovitch told his uncle. "In another month, I think I will be just as good as I was and ready for the front again."
The sergeant did return to the battlefield, rejoining his unit in time to take part in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the last major campaign of the war and one of the deadliest offensives in American history.
Sadly, government records show Mestrovitch was killed in action Nov. 4, 1918, when his battalion came under fire from a concealed machine-gun position during a reconnaissance patrol.
One week later, on Nov. 11, 1918, an armistice was signed. The war was over.
Mestrovitch was initially buried in a temporary cemetery in France, but in 1925, his remains were returned to his mother. He was reburied in a cemetery at St. John Serbian Orthodox Church in Durasevici, Montenegro.
Later that year, during a U.S. mission to the city of Split in current-day Croatia, sailors sought out Mestrovitch's mother, Mary. Reports say she was invited aboard a Navy ship, where she received a posthumous Medal of Honor on her son's behalf in the presence of a full honor guard.
This article is part of a weekly series called "Medal of Honor Monday," in which we highlight one of the more than 3,500 Medal of Honor recipients who have received the U.S. military's highest medal for valor.