Navy Federal Credit Union

Edouard Isaacs graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Class of 1915. He later changed the spelling of his name to Izac after visiting France and learning of the original spelling of the Isaacs ancestors. Following World War I Edouard Izac’s wounds forced his retirement from the military in 1921 as a Navy Lieutenant Commander, and he pursued a journalism career in San Diego, CA from 1922 – 1928. After an unsuccessful election bid in 1934 for the U.S. Congress he was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions of 1940 and 1944. From 1937 to 1947 he represented California’s 20th District in the U.S. House before losing his re-election bid in 1946. After this loss he purchased a farm in Gordonsville, VA. He was a resident of Fairfax, VA from 1988 until his death in 1990. At the time of his death he was the last surviving World War I recipient.

Awards Received

  • Medal of Honor

    Service:

    United States Navy

    Rank:

    Lieutenant

    Division:

    Prisoner of War

    Action Date:

    May 21, 1918

    Date of Issue: November 11, 1920

    The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Lieutenant Edouard Victor Michel Izac (Isaacs), United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism in action as prisoner of war, 21 May 1918. When the U.S.S. PRESIDENT LINCOLN was attacked and sunk by the German submarine U-90, on 21 May 1918, Lieutenant Izac was captured and held as a prisoner on board the U-90 until the return of the submarine to Germany, when he was confined in the prison camp. During his stay on the U-90 he obtained information of the movements of German submarines which was so important that he determined to escape, with a view to making this information available to the U.S. and Allied Naval authorities. In attempting to carry out this plan, he jumped through the window of a rapidly moving train at the imminent risk of death, not only from the nature of the act itself but from the fire of the armed German soldiers who were guarding him. Having been recaptured and re-confined, Lieutenant Izac made a second and successful attempt to escape, breaking his way through barbed-wire fences and deliberately drawing the fire of the armed guards in the hope of permitting others to escape during the confusion. He made his way through the mountains of southwestern Germany, having only raw vegetables for food, and at the end, swam the River Rhine during the night in the immediate vicinity of German sentries.

  • Prisoner of War Medal

    Service:

    United States Navy

    Rank:

    Lieutenant

    Division:

    Prisoner of War (Germany)

    Action Date:

    May 21, 1918 – October 6, 1918

    Lieutenant Edouard Victor Michel Izac (Isaacs), United States Navy, was captured when the U.S.S. President Lincoln was torpedoed and sunk by the German Submarine U-90 on 21 May 1918 and was held as a Prisoner of War in Germany until his successful escape from captivity on 6 October 1918.