The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Private First Class David M. Gonzales, United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty on 25 April 1945, while serving with Company A, 127th Infantry Regiment, 32d Infantry Division, in action at Hill 507, Villa Verde, Luzon, Philippine Islands. Private First Class Gonzales 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 five men with its explosion. Private First Class 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. Private First Class Gonzales’ valiant and intrepid conduct exemplifies the highest tradition of the military service.