Alexander R. Skinker

Branch

U.S. Army

Era

World War I

Home state

Missouri

Action

Cheppy, France

The citation

Official citation

Unwilling to sacrifice his men when his company was held up by terrific machinegun fire from iron pill boxes in the Hindenburg Line, Capt. Skinker personally led an automatic rifleman and a carrier in an attack on the machineguns. The carrier was killed instantly, but Capt. Skinker seized the ammunition and continued through an opening in the barbed wire, feeding the automatic rifle until he, too, was killed.

Sources

• U.S. Army Medal of Honor citation index
• Wikipedia. Linked only. The article text is not copied here.