David Barkley Biography

David Barkley

Barkley, an enlisted private in the U.S. Army, was the first Hispanic American to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. During World War I he voluntarily swam the icy Meuse River in France to gather information behind German lines. He drowned on the way back from the Meuse mission and was honored posthumously with the Congressional Medal of Honor. His Hispanic heritage was not known until 1989.