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Hispanic-American Medal of Honor Recipients GONZALES, DAVID M. Rank and organization: Private
First Class, U.S. Army, Company A, 127th Infantry, 32d Infantry Division.
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Hispanic-American Medal of Honor Recipients GONZALES, DAVID M. Rank and organization: Private
First Class, U.S. Army, Company A, 127th Infantry, 32d Infantry Division.
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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.