David M Gonzales, PFC

Private First Class David M. Gonzales (June 9, 1923–April 25, 1945) was a United States Army soldier who posthumously received the Medal of Honor — the United States' highest military decoration — for his actions during World War II. On April 25, 1945, at age 22, PFC Gonzales was killed in action in the Philippines while, in the face of enemy machine gun fire, digging out fellow soldiers who had been buried in a bomb explosion.

Medal of Honor

Pvt. David M. Gonzales

Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company A, 127th Infantry, 32d Infantry Division.

Place and date: Villa Verde Trail, Luzon, Philippine Islands, April 25, 1945.

Entered service at: Pacoima, California

Birth: Pacoima, California

G.O. No: 115, December 8, 1945.

Citation:

He was pinned down with his company. As enemy fire swept the area, making any movement extremely hazardous, a 500-pound bomb smashed into the company's perimeter, burying 5 men with its explosion. Pfc. Gonzales, without hesitation, seized an entrenching tool and under a hail of fire crawled 15 yards to his entombed comrades, where his commanding officer, who had also rushed forward, was beginning to dig the men out. Nearing his goal, he saw the officer struck and instantly killed by machinegun fire. Undismayed, he set to work swiftly and surely with his hands and the entrenching tool while enemy sniper and machinegun bullets struck all about him. He succeeded in digging one of the men out of the pile of rock and sand. To dig faster he stood up regardless of the greater danger from so exposing himself. He extricated a second man, and then another. As he completed the liberation of the third, he was hit and mortally wounded, but the comrades for whom he so gallantly gave his life were safely evacuated. Pfc. Gonzales' valiant and intrepid conduct exemplifies the highest tradition of the military service