Alexander R. Skinker

Alexander Rives Skinker
File:Alexander Skinker.jpg
Born	(1883-10-13)October 13, 1883
Died	September 26, 1918(1918-09-26) (aged 34)
Place of birth	St. Louis, Missouri
Place of death	Cheppy, France
Place of burial	Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	Missouri National Guard US Army
Years of service	1903 - 1908, 1916 - 1918
Rank	Captain
Unit	138th Infantry Regiment, 35th Division
Battles/wars	Argonne Forest, World War I
Awards	Medal of Honor

Captain Alexander Rives Skinker (October 13, 1883 – September 26, 1918) was a Medal of Honor recipient during World War I. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1905. He served in the Missouri National Guard from 1903 to 1908, and entered the Army as a commissioned officer in 1916. He was awarded the medal for leading an attack on German pillboxes in the Hindenburg Line during the Battle of the Argonne. Skinker was killed in the attack.

Medal of Honor citation

Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Army, 138th Infantry, 35th Division. Place and date: At Cheppy, France, September 26, 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 machine-guns. 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.

See also

• List of Medal of Honor recipients for World War I

References

• "Alexander R. Skinker". Claim to Fame: Medal of Honor recipients. Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/memorial/20930. Retrieved 2007-12-23. 
• "Access Genealogy". http://www.accessgenealogy.com/scripts/data/database.cgi?file=Data&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=0000934. Retrieved September 24, 2010.