1st Lt. Edward A. Silk commanded the weapons platoon of Company E, 398th Infantry, on 23 November 1944, when the end battalion was assigned the mission of seizing high ground overlooking Moyenmoutier, France, prior to an attack on the city itself.
When he was 15 years old, he was given by his parents to the monastery of Moyenmoutier in Lorraine, as an oblate, intended for monastic life.
In 1604 the resulting new constitution of the Congrégation of St. Vanne and St. Hydulphe received papal approval.