Story by Petty Officer 3rd Class Adam Ferrero
Courtesy Defense Visual Information Distribution Service
Prior to World War II, it was possible to receive the Medal of Honor for acts of bravery during peacetime. One such recipient, Robert Augustus Sweeney, earned the award not once, but twice.
Sweeney was serving in the Navy aboard the Mohican-class sloop-of-war USS Kearsarge in October 1881, when a shipmate fell overboard. Without concern for himself, Sweeney jumped into the water after the man and, despite the strong tide, saved him from drowning, earning his first Medal of Honor. Sweeney earned his second medal two years later in December 1883 while he was serving aboard a wooden-hulled screw gunboat, USS Yantic, docked at the Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York. A boy on another docked ship fell overboard, prompting Sweeney to perform another rescue.
To date, Sweeney is the only African American to have earned the Medal of Honor twice, one of only 19 double recipients in total.