Mike Colalillo, pictured above, received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor for bravery, from President Harry Truman on Dec. 18, 1945.  On Friday, Minnesota’s last surviving Medal of Honor recipient Mike Colalillo passed away at Bayshore Health Center, which Ecumen operates in Duluth.

Hero.  It was a word that accompanied Mike Colallo’s name continuously.  He didn’t quite see it that way, though.   He told a reporter after the war:

"I never wanted to kill anybody, and I never had any particular yen to be a hero. Heroes are a dime a dozen in my book."

The Army private was a rifleman in the 100th Infantry Division and stationed near Untergriesheim, Germany, on April 7, 1945, according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

According to the Medal of Honor citation:

Colalillo and others in his company were pinned down during a battle. He stood up amid heavy artillery, mortar and machine-gun fire, shouted to his comrades to follow and ran forward as he fired his weapon.

"Inspired by his example, his comrades advanced in the face of savage enemy fire," the citation read.

When shrapnel disabled his weapon, Colalillo "climbed to the deck of a friendly tank, manned an exposed machine gun on the turret of the vehicle and, while bullets rattled about him, fired at an enemy emplacement with such devastating accuracy that he killed or wounded at least 10 hostile soldiers and destroyed their machine gun."

A salute to Mike Colalillo.  May he rest in peace.