b. 27/01/1895 Decatur, Texas. d. 19/11/1979 Fort Myers, Florida.
DATE OF MOH ACTION: 08/10/1918 near St Etienne, France.
Born on January 27, 1895, in Decatur, Texas, Sampler was raised in Audubon, New Jersey. He enlisted in the Army from Altus, Oklahoma, and served in Europe as a corporal with Company H of the 142nd Infantry Regiment, 36th Division. During an attack near Saint-Étienne-à-Arnes, France, on October 8, 1918, his company’s advance was halted and they took heavy casualties from a German machine gun nest. Sampler single-handedly charged the hostile position and silenced it with hand grenades, killing two German soldiers and capturing 28. For this action, he was awarded the Medal of Honor the next year, in 1919.
MOH CITATION:
His company, having suffered severe casualties during an advance under machine-gun fire, was finally stopped. Cpl. Sampler detected the position of the enemy machine guns on an elevation. Armed with German hand grenades, which he had picked up, he left the line and rushed forward in the face of heavy fire until he was near the hostile nest, where he grenaded the position. His third grenade landed among the enemy, killing two, silencing the machine guns, and causing the surrender of 28 Germans, whom he sent to the rear as prisoners. As a result of his act the company was immediately enabled to resume the advance.
BURIAL LOCATION: MEMORIAL GARDENS CEMETERY, FORT MYERS, FLORIDA.
VETERANS LAWN CRYPT, SECTION H, SPACE 70.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: BELIEVED TO BE FAMILY.