page_title: 549th Engineer Light Ponton Company
section_title: Awards
hierarchical_section_title: 549th Engineer Light Ponton Company / Awards
caption_attribution_description: English: The Bronze Star Medal, a decoration of the United States Armed Forces.
context_page_description: The 549th Engineers Light Ponton Company was a combat engineer company of the United States Army during World War II. Operationally attached to the 1150th Engineer Combat Group, it served under XXI Corps of the Seventh Army in action in France and Germany in 1944 and 1945.
  The 549th was primarily a highly mobile pontoon bridge construction unit, which also provided both M2 assault boats and a selection of infantry support bridging, ferries, and rafts. It was created on 14 January 1943, but was not committed troops until training began five months later at Camp Hood, Texas. The company was composed of black American troops and NCOs, with primarily white senior officers.
  The 549th's bridge building, assault troop ferrying, and other combat capabilities were drawn on for the assault of Saarbrücken on the Saar River at the Siegfried Line, the crossing of the Main River and capture of Würzburg, and the Danube at Dillingen, then continued on towards Austria as three separate platoons.
  In the European Theater of Operations it was often just ahead or behind the 289th Engineer Combat Battalion during the months of March, April, and May 1945.
context_section_description: Twelve members of the 549th received awards for meritorious service in connection with the successful crossing of three rivers in Germany and the Alps:
  NORMANDY BASE SECTION, France – At its first and last formation, 12 members of the 549th Engineer Light Ponton Company were awarded the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service in connection with the successful crossing of three rivers in Germany and the Alps. One of two colored ponton bridge units in the ETO, the 549th in April, after ferrying assault troops across the Saar River„ erected 1084 feet of Bailey Bridge and Infantry foot bridge over the river. The men, who; had helped capture Saarbrücken, moved on to Würzburg, which they helped subdue, and swinging southward, threw up 1400 feet of bridge over the Main and Danube Rivers.
  Under Constant Fire
  Then assigned the job of bridging the river at Würzburg, the pontoners worked three days and nights under constant fire erecting a 570-foot triple bridge, strong enough for the heaviest train load. Finally attached  to the 12th Armored Division of General Patton's [sic] Seventh Army  they worked through to Bad Reichenthal, Germany, where on V-E day they finished a 190-foot bridge, that proved a gateway for French and American troops.  During its three campaigns, the company lost only one man, T/Sgt. Elmer Barrett of 2208 Dickinson St., Philadelphia, who was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart. 
  The three officers and nine enlisted men who received the Bronze Star from Col. E. J. Dowling of the 1150th Engineer Combat Group were:
  1st Sgt. Leon Wilburn. Florence Villa, Fla.; Sgt. Evan T. Guess, 711 Elm St., Madison. Ind.: S/Sgt. Weldon D. Bryant, NYC.; S/Sgt. Wilson R. Forney, Cornelius, NC.: PFC Johnnie D. Townsend. Chattanooga. Tenn.; T/4 Milton Green. Panama City, Fla.: S/ Sgt. Stanley J. Short, Pittsburgh; Cpl. Lawrence C. Cooke, Palatka, Fla.; Sgt. Daniel I. Poe, 2231 Tort St., Detroit; 1st Lt. John R. Hopkins, Florence. Ma.; 1st Lt. Robert A. Flynn, NYC.. and 1st Lt. George
  The Afro-American, 25 August 1945, page 1-2
caption: United States Bronze Star Medal
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