Charles Andrew MacGillivary Charles Andrew MacGillivary ( January 17 , 1917 - June 24 , 2000 ) was a Medal of Honor recipient , born in Charlottetown , Prince Edward Island , Canada . A Sergeant in the United States Army , he was attached to Company I , 71st Infantry , 44th Infantry Division during World War II . Pre - War . Born to Cardigan Scot Roland MacGillivary and Minnie Quinn , he attended Queens Square School in Charlottetown and joined the Merchant Marines at age 16 . Shortly thereafter , MacGillivary emigrated to the United States , to live with his older brother in Boston , Massachusetts . When living with his brother , he learned about the Army and considered joining it . After hearing about the attack on Pearl Harbor , he decided the right thing to do was to volunteer for the U . S . Army . In January 1942 , he joined the Army as a private soldier and was assigned to the European Theatre of Operations . He told the United States Senate Subcommittee on Immigration 50 years later , that when he was in boot camp : Medal of Honor citation . MacGillivary ' s first wartime action came during the Battle of Normandy , landing on Omaha Beach in 1944 . From Omaha Beach MacGillivary would be involved in numerous battles throughout France , before reaching Wœlfling during the Battle of the Bulge . When his unit was surrounded on January 1 , 1945 by the 17th German Panzer Grenadier Division a Waffen - SS Panzer unit in Wœlfling , France , MacGillivary , then 27 , picked up a machine gun and knocked out four German machine gun nests , killing 36 German soldiers . He lost his left arm in this action . Interestingly the unit he fought to win his decoration , was given the title Götz von Berlichingen after a 15th - century German knight who lost his right hand . MacGillivary told a Boston Globe reporter in 1995 : On August 25 , 1945 MacGillivary personally received a Medal of Honor for his efforts from President Harry S . Truman the award letter is as follows : Other awards . For other actions during World War II MacGillivary also received the Purple Heart with three oak leaf cluster s , the Distinguished Service Cross , the Bronze Star , the Soldier ' s Medal , and the French Croix de Guerre . He was also eligible for the American Campaign Medal , European - African - Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal . He is honored with a bronze plaque on the lectern at the George Robert White Fund Memorial at the Veterans Memorial Park in the Back Bay Fens in Boston , Massachusetts . Post - World War II . After the war MacGillivary returned home to Boston where for a short time he worked as a special agent for Boston ' s Treasury Department . He joined the United States Customs Service in 1950 starting as a warehouse officer , but soon became an agent for the United States Customs Office of Investigations , conducting special investigations . His daughter Charlene Corea remembered him as being particularly busy in the winter inspecting Christmas tree s that entered the United States from Canada . He retired from the Customs Service in 1975 . Sergeant Charles A . MacGillivary was enrolled as a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts the third oldest chartered military organization in the world on April 6 , 1992 . He was the seventh member of the company to receive the Medal of Honor . Death . MacGillivary was a resident of Braintree , Massachusetts from 1957 until his death at age 83 on Saturday June 24 , 2000 in the VA Hospital in Brockton , Massachusetts . Rev . Philip Salois , who had himself received a Silver Star in the Vietnam War performed the funeral . Then Governor of Massachusetts Paul Cellucci was in attendance at MacGillivary ' s funeral . He is buried beside his wife , Esther , in Section 48 ( grave 568 ) of Arlington National Cemetery .