David B. Champagne was a corporal in the United States Marine Corps who received the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously “for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty” inaction op Hill 104 during the Korean War.

David was born as the middle of three sons on November 13, 1932 to Anna (née Osboume) and Bernard Leo Champagne in Waterville, Maine. The family was raised in Wakefield, Rhode Island where David attended school. In the 1951 South Kingstown High School yearbook, Champagne was cited as “good natured and well liked.” He was a four-year member of the agriculture class and president of the Future Farmers of America. He was pictured in the yearbook as a member of the Narragansett War Memorial Committee, the Yearbook Paper Drive Committee and the Retail Selling Club. He was interested in horses and worked part time at the Wakefield community movie theater where his older brother Carleton worked as a projectionist.

At the age of 18, Champagne enlisted in the United States Marie Corps in Boston on March 7, 1951. After recruit training at Parris Island, South Carolina he was stationed at Camp Pendleton, California for advanced training from August 1951. After that training, he was assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 7th Regiment, 1st Marine Division for deployment to Korea in October 1951. On November 26, 1951, Corporal Champagne’s unit was given the mission to seize Hill 104 beneath the 38th Parallel dividing North and South Korea. On May 28, 1952, the Marines reached the base of Hill 104 heavily fortified and defended by Communist Chinese troops. Champagne, a fire team leader, advanced toward the enemy positions with three other Marines of his team. He successfully led his team through enemy grenades, small arms and machine gun fire. Although wounded in the encounter, Corporal Champagne refused evacuation. An enemy counterattack against the Marines intensified and a grenade landed in the midst of Champagne’s fire team. Without hesitation he grabbed the grenade to throw it back at the enemy. Just as it left his hand, the grenade exploded showering the Corporal with shrapnel and mortally wounding him. His extraordinary heroism saved the lives of the three other members of his fire team. Champagne was 20 years old at the time of his death.

On July 26, 1953, Corporal David Bernard Champagne’s posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor was presented to his 15 year old younger brother, Reginald. Presiding at the ceremony at Od Mountain Field in Wakefield was then­ Major General Reginald Heber Ridgely, Jr. who, at the time, was Director of Marine Corps Personnel. MG Ridgley presented the Medal of Honor to young Reginald before a large crowd assembled to pay tribute to the fallen Marine.

Corporal David Bernard Champagne was laid to rest in St. Francis Catholic Cemetery in Waterville, Maine.

LEGACY:

• Part of the Village of Wakefield Housing Authority is named in honor of Champagne – Champagne Heights.
• The United States Postal Service office in Wakefield is named for Corporal David Bernard Champagne.
• The United States Marine Corps General who presided over the presentation of the posthumous Medal of Honor to Corporal Champagne’s younger brother in July of 1953 has a heroic story of his own from World War II. Captured at the fall of Corregidor in the Philippines in May of 1942, then­ Major Ridgely and his fellow American and Filipino prisoners of war endured unending physical and emotional abuse, torture, starvation and deprivation at the hands of their Japanese captors throughout the remainder of World War II. Ridgely and approximately 1,600 prisoners withstood the ordeal of the Japanese “hell ships” used to transpmi prisoners of war for use as slave laborers at locations closer to the Japanese home islands. Ridgely ended up in Korea from where he was released just after Japan’s surrender on September 2, 1945. Only 400 of the 1,600 POWs loaded on the “hell ships” survived the war. Among General Ridgely’s decorations were the Prisoner of War Medal, the Philippine Republic Presidential Unit Citation and the Philippine Defense Medal with Bronze Star.
• In an ultimate tale of family tragedy, on August 13, 1953, the Providence Journal reported that Reginald H. Champagne, the 15-year-old brother of Corporal Champagne who had received his brother’s posthumous Medal of Honor less then three weeks earlier, died the previous day in a swimming pool drowning accident while visiting the home of his uncle in Waterville, Maine. Both David and Reginald were survived by their grief-stricken parents.
• In April of 2023, a special committee of the Town of South Kingstown’s 300th Anniversary celebration conducted a ceremony in honor of the town’s Medal of Honor recipients and its Missing in Action military personnel. At that ceremony, Corporal David Champagne was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.
• Subsequently to Champagne’s induction, South Kingstown was successful in arranging with the State of Rhode Island to dedicate three bridges in honor of the town’s Medal of Honor recipients. The Medal of Honor Cpl. David Bernard Champagne Memorial Bridge with special red, white and blue signage is on State Route 108 in the village of Wakefield, RI crossing Indian River Run and not far from Old Mountain Field where Corporal Champagne’s posthumous Medal of Honor was presented 70 years earlier. The bridge was dedicated in September of 2023.

For further reading:

See the Congressional Medal of Honor Society’s website (cmohs.org) to read the full Medal of Honor Citation presented with Corporal Champagne’s Medal.