M.J. Daly dies, Medal of Honor recipient

Michael J. Daly, a lifetime resident of Fairfield and a Medal of Honor recipient in World War II, died at home today. He was 83.

President Harry S. Truman placed the blue ribbon of the Congressional Medal of Honor around the neck of 20-year-old Capt. Daly at the White House on Aug. 23, 1945. The award gave the modest Daly an aura of celebrity, which thereafter caused him some embarrassment.

During World War II, which he entered as an 18-year-old infantry private, Daly was awarded the Silver Star twice for bravery in addition to the Medal of Honor. The latter came following his actions at the siege of Nuremberg in April 1945 with the Third Division of the Seventh Army.

Leading his infantry company through the rubble and exposing himself to enemy fire over and over, he eliminated three machine-gun positions, killing 15 of the enemy, with his own small carbine.

"Anybody would have done what I did," he later told a friend. "Luck is important in life. But in combat it is crucial. The bravest things are often done with God the only witness."

Following the war, Daly returned to Fairfield and began a business life as a salesmen for an oil company. He soon after commenced an independent entrepreneurial career that proved to be rewarding for him and to the many others whom he helped along the way.

Michael Daly & Associates had a small office on Harbor Road in Southport and the associates were most often his many friends. Daly was notably proud of his association with the St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport, for which he helped to raise considerable financial support for many years.

A Democrat, he flirted with politics but declined invitations to run for office although encouraging to his brother, the late Judge T.F. Gilroy Daly, in the latter's unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1982. Daly was also supportive of Fairfield's longtime first selectman, his friend John J. Sullivan, who earned election as a Democrat in a town with a Republican majority for a record 12 terms.

Daly is survived by his wife of 50 years, Margaret Wallace Daly; his daughter, Deirdre Daly; his son, Michael of Fairfield; son-in-law, Alfred Pavlis; grandsons Michael, Nicholas and William, all of Fairfield; sisters, Bevan Daly Patterson of Garrison, N.Y., and Alison Daly Gerard of New York City; a stepson, W. Sanford Miller of Chadds Ford, Pa., and a stepdaughter, Blair Miller of Asheville, N.C.

DALY, MICHAEL J.

Rank and organization: Captain (then Lieutenant), U.S. Army, Company A, 15th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Nuremberg, Germany, 18 April 1945. Entered service at: Southport, Conn. Born: 15 September 1924, New York, N.Y. G.O. No.: 77, 10 September 1945. Citation: Early in the morning of 18 April 1945, he led his company through the shell-battered, sniper-infested wreckage of Nuremberg, Germany. When bl1stering machinegun fire caught his unit in an exposed position, he ordered his men to take cover, dashed forward alone, and, as bullets whined about him, shot the 3-man guncrew with his carbine. Continuing the advance at the head of his company, he located an enemy patrol armed with rocket launchers which threatened friendly armor. He again went forward alone, secured a vantage point and opened fire on the Germans. Immediately he became the target for concentrated machine pistol and rocket fire, which blasted the rubble about him. Calmly, he continued to shoot at the patrol until he had killed all 6 enemy infantrymen. Continuing boldly far in front of his company, he entered a park, where as his men advanced, a German machinegun opened up on them without warning. With his carbine, he killed the gunner; and then, from a completely exposed position, he directed machinegun fire on the remainder of the crew until all were dead. In a final duel, he wiped out a third machinegun emplacement with rifle fire at a range of 10 yards. By fearlessly engaging in 4 single-handed fire fights with a desperate, powerfully armed enemy, Lt. Daly, voluntarily taking all major risks himself and protecting his men at every opportunity, killed 15 Germans, silenced 3 enemy machineguns and wiped out an entire enemy patrol. His heroism during the lone bitter struggle with fanatical enemy forces was an inspiration to the valiant Americans who took Nuremberg.

As you know, you are more likely to see mustangs enter the officer corps during war.

These past 7 years may have elevated a greater number than regular. The question is now if President Obama will pretend we are now at peace, cut the military, and see these soldiers reduced in rank or detached from the service “with thanks” and then studied indifference.

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