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Rank and organization:
Private
First Class, U.S. Army,
Company A, 127th
Infantry, 32d Infantry Division.
Place and date:
Villa Verde Trail, Luzon,
Philippine Islands, 25 April 1945.
Entered service at:
Pacoima, California
Birth:
Pacoima, California
G.O. No: 115, 8 December 1945.
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---cClick here David M. Gonzales
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Citation:
He was pinned down with his
company. As enemy fire swept the area, making any movement
extremely hazardous, a 500-pound bomb smashed into
the company's perimeter, burying 5 men
with its explosion. Pfc. Gonzales,
without hesitation, seized an entrenching tool and under a hail of fire
crawled 15 yards to his entombed comrades, where his commanding officer,
who had also rushed forward,
was beginning to dig the men out. Nearing his goal, he saw the officer
struck and instantly
killed by machinegun fire.
Undismayed, he set to work swiftly and surely with his hands and
the entrenching tool while enemy sniper and
machinegun bullets struck all about him.
He succeeded in digging one of the men out
of the pile of rock and sand. To dig faster he stood
up regardless of the greater danger from so exposing himself. He extricated a second man, and
then another. As he completed the liberation
of the third,
he was hit and mortally wounded, but the comrades for whom he so gallantly
gave
his life were safely evacuated. Pfc. Gonzales' valiant and intrepid conduct
exemplifies
the highest tradition of the military service.
Back to http://www.neta.com/~1stbooks/medal2.htm
Medal of Honor Recipients, Americans of
Hispanic Heritage, E-mail 1stbooks@neta.com
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