Tressler, from Confluence, PA, served in the Army with the 467th AAA-AW Battalion (SP), 1st Infantry Division. He took part in the D-Day Normandy Invasion at Omaha Beach and in the Battle of the Bulge.

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In the words of Tressler's friend, Dal Estes, "A country boy from the hills and vales of Confluence, PA, Mahlon Tressler was a steady soldier who did not become excited when the battle broke loose. He was never a person to question authority and a real buddy to have, especially during battle.

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On D-Day, June 6th, 1944, we dug in over Omaha Beach in an apple orchard above the beach. I set up the guard for our two squads in an orchard, surrounded by hedgerows six feet high. I knew that I would not sleep that night.

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I placed Tressler under a long table that had been used by the Germans as a training table. It was loaded with sand and showed all the buildings along Omaha Beach. Tress went on guard at 12 midnight. At about 1 a.m. a shot rang out in the orchard. I crawled up and Tress said to me 'I got one!' I said 'Not a horse or a cow?' We laughed and crawled up to find that he had killed a German with a sniper rifle. He was trying to get into the farmhouse and was in a stone archway leading into the orchard. We did not know how many officers he would have shot.

 

Mahlon Tressler did the job for us, the 467th and the U.S. Army that night. These are the kind of men who established our foothold in France."