Period:

First World War (1914-1918)

Rank:

1st Lieutenant

Unit:

319th Infantry Regiment, 80th Division, U.S. Army

Awarded on:

1923

"For extraordinary heroism in action near Gercourt, France, September 26 and 27, 1918. On the night of September 26 and during the following day Lieutenant Rodgers repeatedly led his detachment in the face of heavy artillery and machine-gun fire in repairing telephone lines between regimental headquarters and front-line battalions. After reestablishing these lines innumerable times, and after they were broken beyond repair, with materials at hand, he, with one of his runners, voluntarily and under intense machine-gun and shell fire carried messages to the front-line elements of his regiment. Later, in action near Cunel, in the Bois-des-Ogons, October 4 - 12, 1918, severely gassed, he refused to be evacuated, working continuously without sleep for four days, keeping lines of communication open to the front, and contracted pneumonia which caused his death on October 23, 1918."

General Orders No. 9 (posthumously awarded)