Reporter-News Archives Thursday, September 27, 2001 Hispanic WWI hero gave name to Barkeley By Sidney Schuhmann Reporter-News Staff Writer David Barkley never knew he was the Army’s first Hispanic Medal of Honor recipient. And for 70 years after his death in 1918, neither did the rest of the world. Not until the late 1980s did a relative reveal the war hero’s secret and the motive behind the shrouded truth of his heritage. The namesake of Abilene’s former Army training post — a clerical error when he enlisted led to Camp Barkeley’s misspelled name — took the secret of his ethnicity to an early grave. The son of an Irish father and a Hispanic mother, Barkley probably hid his roots from military superiors in World War I to ensure he would see battle on the front lines. That’s where he perished three days before the war’s end.z Only when a grandnephew contacted a national Medal of Honor society to offer family mementos to its archives was Barkley’s secret revealed: He was the first of the nation’s 37 Hispanic Medal of Honor winners. The Medal of Honor is the nation’s highest military award. Given by Congress, it honors soldiers who risk their lives in combat beyond the call of duty. Barkley’s admirers are left to wonder why, despite all his posthumous accolades, he was never embraced as a true Hispanic hero and why his heritage was not revealed sooner. “It wasn’t brought to light in a manner the whole Hispanic community was made aware of,” said Mike Hernandez, who lives in Abilene and operates the Web site www.hispanicabilene.com. “… He didn’t want anyone to know (about his heritage) when he joined the Army.” Barkley’s grandnephew, 41-year-old Ruben Barkley Hernandez of San Antonio, said the reason was simple. “There was a lot of prejudice back then,” said Hernandez, who is not related to Mike Hernandez. Barkley was born at the turn of the century in Laredo to Josef and Antonia Cantú Barkley. The couple had a daughter, Amelia, in 1903. The family frequently moved because Josef was a career soldier. They settled in San Antonio around 1904, Hernandez said. The couple’s age when they married — he was 31 and she was 15 — may have contributed to the marital strife that drove Josef Barkley to abandon his family shortly after the move and return to his home state of Pennsylvania. To help support his mother and sister, David Barkley worked after his elementary school classes as a newsboy for the now-defunct San Antonio Light. He spent his spare time swimming in public pools and once set a record by swimming 300 yards nonstop. Barkley’s swimming ability would later earn him a place in history. He quit school at age 13 to be a full-time delivery boy for a grocery store. When the United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, Barkley, at age 18, enlisted in the Army two weeks later. He asked his mother not to mention her Hispanic name in letters to him, Hernandez said. “Just tell them it’s Barkley,” he wrote in one letter. The color lines Hernandez said Barkley feared he would not see action on the front lines if officers knew about his heritage. Such fears were not unfounded, said Char Miller, who heads the history department at Trinity University in San Antonio. “Race relations were appalling during World War I, both at home and abroad,” Miller said. Minorities in the military were frequently assigned manual labor, such as moving supplies. Hispanic and black troops were usually not allowed to fight on the front lines because white officers didn’t want to arm them, Miller said. “Mexican-Americans and African-Americans enlisted to defend their country,” he said, “but it turns out their country wasn’t interested in having them defend it.” Despite his dark features, Barkley was able to “pass through the color lines” and serve with white soldiers on the front, Miller said. Barkley was stationed at Camp Travis in San Antonio and Camp Bowie in Fort Worth before he was transferred to Company A, 356th Infantry, 89th Division, and sent to France. In France, he was thrust into action during the final days of the war. American troops pushed back the German army from Paris to the opposite side of the Meuse River in northern France. However, the Germans set up artillery and machine-gun installations that made further allied advances impossible. Volunteers were needed to infiltrate enemy lines to verify the Germans’ exact location and the strength of their army. Three pairs of men volunteered to cross the icy river near Pouilly, France, Hernandez told the San Antonio Express-News in 1989. The first team was driven back by the river’s strong current. The second pair met heavy enemy fire and also turned back. Finally, Barkley and Sgt. Harold Johnston entered the water. They swam the river and crawled 400 yards behind enemy lines. They made maps of the locations of enemy artillery units and dove back into the water. The Germans noticed the soldiers and opened fire. Barkley, 19, was seized by cramps and drowned. Johnston returned to shore safely and relayed the information, which enabled the unit to launch a successful attack against the Germans. Johnston also received the Medal of Honor, one of 96 awarded to Army soldiers for World War I service. Three days after Barkley drowned, the armistice took effect. In 1921, at his mother’s request, Barkley’s remains were moved from France to Texas. He was buried with full military honors at Fort Sam Houston Post Cemetery, now San Antonio National Cemetery. That same year, Barkley Elementary School in a predominantly Hispanic San Antonio neighborhood was named for him. And in 1941, Camp Barkeley was named for the Texas hero, though the Army maintained the misspelled version of his name. After swelling to 50,000 troops and becoming one of the state’s largest military installations during World War II, plus an economic boon to nearby Abilene, the temporary camp eight miles southwest of the city closed when the war ended. But the camp’s namesake wasn’t forgotten. Ruben Hernandez continues to preserve his great-uncle’s name and promote his achievements. He cares for Barkley’s medals and other memorabilia, too, though he suspects a relative sold the war hero’s Medal of Honor. While newspaper articles have been written in Austin and San Antonio about Barkley’s heritage, it has taken longer for word to reach Abilene Hispanics. After collecting Camp Barkeley mementos for years, Mike Hernandez was delighted to learn about Barkley’s roots. “It was ironic that all along the camp was named after a Medal of Honor winner of Hispanic descent,” said Hernandez, whose father trained at the camp. “I was glad to hear that.” Barkley was honored in a special ceremony on Sept. 16, 1989, in San Antonio during Hispanic Heritage Week. His tombstone was replaced with a new one reflecting his Medal of Honor. “He did the kind of work that every minority in the military would have been happy to do,” said Miller, the history professor, “had people looked beyond the color of their skin.” Contact military writer Sidney Schuhmann at 676-6721 or schuhmanns@abinews.com Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story Start or Join A Discussion about This Story Send the URL (Address) of This Story to A Friend: Enter their email address below: texnews reporternews local news features Copyright ©2001, Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. 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