[2] He joined the Army from Lubbock in June 1943,[3] and by February 27, 1945, was serving as a private first class in Company B, 301st Engineer Combat Battalion, 76th Infantry Division.
Private First Class Wallace's official Medal of Honor citation reads: He displayed conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity.
Hearing the characteristic noise indicating that the mine had been activated and, if he stepped aside, would be thrown upward to explode above ground and spray the area with fragments, surely killing 2 comrades directly behind him and endangering other members of his squad, he deliberately placed his other foot on the mine even though his best chance for survival was to fall prone.
Wallace was killed when the charge detonated, but his supreme heroism at the cost of his life confined the blast to the ground and his own body and saved his fellow soldiers from death or injury.Wallace Theater on Fort Belvoir, Virginia, was named after him upon dedication April 4, 1950.
The former U.S. Army installation Wallace Barracks in the Bad Cannstatt district of Stuttgart, Germany was named after him during the Cold War.