Medal of Honor: Charles D. Barger – World War I – October 31, 1918

Name: Charles D. Barger
Rank: Private First Class
War: World War I
Date of Action: October 31, 1918
Unit: Company L, 354th Infantry Regiment, 89th Division
Born: June 3, 1892 – Mount Vernon, Missouri
Entered Service At: Stotts City, Missouri

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Summary of Action

In the final, brutal days of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, two daylight patrols from the 354th Infantry had been cut down and trapped in No Man’s Land—five hundred yards beyond the American lines, under the sweeping arcs of German machine-guns. To reach them was suicide.

But Private First Class Charles D. Barger, a stretcher bearer, refused to leave his comrades behind. Grabbing his gear, he and another soldier crawled into the open, shells and bullets snapping all around. They reached the first wounded officer, lifted him onto a stretcher, and carried him back across the fire-swept ground. Then, without hesitation, they went out again.

A second wounded officer lay even farther out, pinned near the wire. Barger crawled forward, dragging the stretcher through mud and blood, his uniform torn and his arms shaking from exhaustion. Through sheer will, he pulled the officer to safety—completing two rescues that few would have dared to attempt once.

Private Barger’s courage under fire turned a field of death into a place of mercy, embodying the unbreakable bond between soldiers on the edge of war’s end.

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Medal of Honor Citation

Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company L, 354th Infantry, 89th Division.
Place and date: Near Bois-de-Bantheville, France, 31 October 1918.
Entered service at: Stotts City, Mo.
Birth: Mount Vernon, Mo.
G.O. No.: 20, W.D., 1919.

Citation:
Learning that 2 daylight patrols had been caught out in No Man’s Land and were unable to return, Pfc. Barger and another stretcher bearer upon their own initiative made 2 trips 500 yards beyond our lines, under constant machinegun fire, and rescued 2 wounded officers.