During a dawn raid on a strongly defended mountain position, Sergeant Troxel accompanied the assaulting group while another unit laid down covering fire from heavy weapons.

On his own initiative, he moved forward of his party to close with the hostile force. The enemy observing his movements, followed him with a terrific hail of machine gun fire, but he kept moving, holding his own fire until he was with in 20 yards of the nearest machine gun position. Then he opened fire with a sub-machine gun, killing the enemy gunner and pinning the rest of the hostile force down while other members of the patrol came foward to wipe out all resistance and exploit the breach made in the enemy lines, successfully accomplishing their raiding mission.