Alexander Rives Skinker

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Captain (Infantry) Alexander Rives Skinker, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 26 September 1918, while serving with Company I, 138th Infantry, 35th Division, in action at Cheppy, France. Unwilling to sacrifice his men when his company was held up by terrific machinegun fire from iron pill boxes in the Hindenburg Line, Captain Skinker personally led an automatic rifleman and a carrier in an attack on the machineguns. The carrier was killed instantly, but Captain Skinker seized the ammunition and continued through an opening in the barbed wire, feeding the automatic rifle until he, too, was killed.