Alexander R. Skinker

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Alexander Rives Skinker
October 13, 1883(1883-10-13) – September 26, 1918 (aged 34)

Place of birth	St. Louis, Missouri
Place of death	Cheppy France
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Army
Rank	Captain
Unit	138th US Infantry, 35th Division
Battles/wars	World War I
Awards	Medal of Honor

Captain Alexander R. Skinker was a Medal of Honor Recipient during World War I. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1905 before becoming commissioned as an officer in the United States Army. He was awarded the medal while leading an attack on German pill boxes in the Hindenburg Line in which he was subsequently killed.

[edit] Medal of Honor citation

Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Army, 138th Infantry, 35th Division. Place and date: At Cheppy, France, 26 September 1918. Entered service at: St. Louis, Mo. Birth: St. Louis, Mo. G.O. No.: 13, W.D., 1919.

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.