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Medal of Honor Ribbon Bar--Charles D. Barger


grokett
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I posted this under "Ribbons of any era," but thought it would be appropriate to start a new thread for people who enjoy Medal of Honor recipients. This is a family-owned set of PFC Charlie Barger's ribbons.

 

He was with Company L, 354th Infantry Regiment, 89th Division, when he earned the MOH, and went on to serve in Company D, 38th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Division, between Jan-Jul 1921.

 

I hope you all enjoy this....

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Charlie's original Medal of Honor was stolen during the 1960, and was recently reissued to his grandson, Joe Barger. Here is a photo of the engraving on reverse.

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Hi MilitaryWired. His original medals were either stolen when his original MOH was stolen, or destroyed in the fire that took his life in 1936. There is a project the family has. Would you like to see a photo of that?

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uniformcollector

That is a very nice ribbon bar to a great soldier! It's in great condition and it's nice to see the family still cares about their military history.

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MilitaryWired

Absolutely! Also, do you have information on his Purple Heart citations? I read that he later became a police officer and was shot 5 times during a shootout and survived. This man went through a lot.

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The family is VERY proud of Charlie. He had a tough life. His father was a member of the notorious Staffelbach gang of Galena, Kansas, and he was adopted by the Barger family after the turn of the century. He had an extremely rough time before the military and it didn't get better afterward. It's pretty sad actually.

 

I know about three of the incidents where he earned the Purple Heart. All of them were for heroism in action, not for wounds, even though he was gassed in October 1918. Here is what I know:

 

On October 29, 1918, Jess Funk was being treated for a foot wound when Charlie accompanied several squads to penetrate German lines and attack from the rear. When they returned, it was discovered that one soldier was missing, so Charlie pressed the officer in charge to let him return alone to rescue the missing man. Armed with a pistol and shotgun, he crawled back through German lines and discovered a machine gun nest with the soldier being held as prisoner. He moved in firing, killing and wounding several enemy soldiers. He returned to camp with seven prisoners, a few machine guns and, of course, the captured soldier.

 

During his Medal of Honor action, Charlie made his third trip out in an open field to rescue a wounded private (he never received credit for this in his citation). The German machine gunners were so surprised that he and Jesse Funk hadn't been killed by then, that they stopped firing and stood up to look at them. Charlie walked over and told them he'd be back the next day to get them, and he did. On November 1, 1918, he and Jess attacked the machine gun nest and captured six machine guns and eight prisoners.

 

On the evening of November 2, Charlie and Jess advanced into an area where a number of enlisted men assigned to the 356th Infantry Regiment were separated from the rest of their company. Jess took command to get them out of the area, as they were confronted by a large number of enemy troops. Charlie did his part with his Chauchat, which helped them get to a location where they could set up a defensive fighting position. The enemy attacked repeatedly, but Charlie held them off time and time against, until the men of the 356th established their own defense.

 

By the way Uniformcollector, love Bernie Fisher!!

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By the way, the Purple Hearts were awarded for ten Meritorious Service Citation Certificates he received from General Pershing after the war. He was never officially wounded in action, although he was gassed. During dedication of the WWI Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1921, General Pershing spotted Charlie in the crowd and stepped down from the podium, leaving the vice-President and all his foreign contemporaries on stage, and enjoyed a personal conversation with him. Charlie never forgot that.

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Interesting. Besides the few Graco marked MOH listed on e-medals, this is the first I have seen with Provenance that they were actually bestowed.

Also noteworthy is the British Military Medal in the grouping.

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Jess Funk also received the British Military Medal, and I believe several other MOH recipients did, too.

 

The reissued MOH came from the Awards and Decs branch at Ft. Knox. Attached is the letter from the Army acknowledging reissuance and photos of the medal when it was first received.

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uniformcollector

I think it is so great that the Army will send replacements for things like this. I was talking with Col. Jay Vargas a few months ago and he mentioned that the Marine Corps did the same with him when he lost his in a house fire. Fires seem to take so much history. In the 90's a fire burned down Col. Fisher's house and many things were lost. Luckily his medals survived and are with the family (who, just like Charles Barger's family are incredible proud). Not to go too far off topic, but a friend of mine wrote a book on Patton and his son who was the Major General. Believe it or not, Patton's son was actually very close to Rommel's son. Rommel gave hand painted water colors made by his father (Erwin Rommel) to Major General Patton. When a fire took his house, it took those one-of-a-kind water colors too. It just shows how careful we all have to be when it comes to fires.

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I had an opportunity to interview Bernie back in the 1990s and can tell you he was a great guy! I sent him a full-size set of his medals, absent the MOH, of course, and he was delighted to get them. They had recently closed a base where one of his MOHs was display and he said he was going to use the medals I sent him to build a display. I don't know if he ever got around to that. He is sorely missed!

 

I know that Rommel's son was the mayor of Stuttgart at the time I was stationed in Germany (1988-92), but I never had an opportunity to meet him. I understand that Patton really admired Rommel, even though they were enemies.

 

Unfortunately, Charlie had a lot of mental issues after the war, which the VA refused to recognize as war-related. He tried for years, with the help of the American Legion and VFW, to obtain a small government stipend for his disability, but each time it was declined. Fortunately today, there are organizations in place that would never allow a MOH recipient to go through what he went through. I have extensive details on his death. If he would have had just a little help, things would have been so much different. As a great American war hero, he was the real deal.

 

Thank you for your interest in him!

 

Joe

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  • 3 weeks later...

A true hero and wonderful artifacts to represent his courage. I have always been captivated by the story of the men of the 89th during these days in the end of October. According to accounts from multiple regiments of the Division the men were issued automatic shotguns for the first time in the war in late October. As midwesterners they felt very comfortable with these weapons, having grown up hunting on the farm. They had been accustomed to raiding enemy trenches with a sidearm (communicating by clicking the safety) since back in the Lucey Sector. After losing devastating numbers around 25 Oct to intense gas and shelling they decided these shotguns would be the perfect tool to seek revenge with. I believe the account of Pvt. Barger's third trip into no mans land is among the most personal account of their feelings of anger I have heard. Telling the enemy that he would be back is an example of the mentality that Barger and the men of the 89th developed. They were no longer fresh troops waiting on orders to go "over the top." As vets of St. Mihiel, and well into the days of the Argonne, their motivation was personal, angry and they were eager for revenge.

 

 

-Spencer

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Thank you so much for sharing that information with me, Spencer. The timeframe between 19-31 October 1918 is a little muddled in the accounts I read. Charlie was gassed during this time, but I understood that occurred on October 27. The use of shotguns surprised me when I first learned that he used one in combat, as he was a Chauchat gunner. During the engagement when he used the shotgun to rescued the missing soldier, he took a ring from one of the soldiers he killed. Most troops who took such souvenirs would simply cut off the finger of the dead soldier, but he was not as callous. He cut the back of the ring and had it repaired in Trier after the war. My cousin, Joe Barger, still has the ring. I'll attach a photo of it.

 

I am also very interested in 89th Division history and have been trying to piece Charlie's life story together. I have a lot of good details, but am excited to learn more, like the story you shared. Great stuff!

 

Thanks again, Spencer!

 

Joe

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