On 17 September 1944 as a Captain commanding a company of the 363rd Infantry Regiment during the Italian campaign, he led his unit in capturing German positions on the Monticelli Ridge of the Gothic Line for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

[1] After attending the Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, he returned to Europe in 1946, where he served three years.

He was a faculty member at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania for three years and studied at George Washington University earning a master's degree in international affairs in 1960.

[2]: 51  In mid-September Fulton attended meetings at Coronado Naval Base to develop the training and doctrine of the Mobile Afloat Force.

[2]: 52–3  In October he accompanied the 9th Division commander General Eckhardt on an orientation tour to South Vietnam visiting the Đồng Tâm Base Camp which was then under construction.