Edouard Izac Edouard Victor Michel Izac ( Cresco , Iowa , December 18 , 1891 – January 18 , 1990 ) was a Lieutenant in the United States Navy during World War I , a Representative from California and a Medal of Honor recipient . Biography . Born with the last name of Isaacs , the youngest of nine children , in Cresco , Howard County , Iowa , to Balthazar ( born in Alsace - Lorraine ) and Mathilda Geuth ( born in Philadelphia , with the family heritage from Baden - Württemberg ) . An immigration officer changed the family name from Izac to Isaacs when Balthazar had entered the United States in the 1850s . Izac attended the School of the Assumption , Cresco , Iowa , the high school at South St . Paul , Minnesota , and Werntz Preparatory School , Annapolis , Maryland . He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1915 . The day following his graduation from the academy he married Agnes Cabell ( daughter of General De Rosey Carroll Cabell ) . He first served on the battleship , then after he was promoted from ensign to lieutenant ( junior grade ) , he signed up for the Naval Transport Service . During this time his daughter , Cabell ( b . 1916 ) , was born . He transferred to the in July 1917 . From her maiden voyage in the U . S . Navy , October 18 , 1917 , she made five successful trips to Europe and back . On May 31 , 1918 , his ship , " President Lincoln " was struck by three torpedoes from the German submarine " U – 90 " . Izac was taken aboard the " U – 90 " as prisoner . Later , he escaped from a German prison camp . He was forced to retire in 1921 on account of wounds received while a prisoner of war in Germany . His awards included the Croce di Guerra al Merito of Italy and the Cross of Montenegro . Izac then relocated to San Diego , California , and engaged in newspaper work and writing from 1922 to 1928 . He was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1934 to the Seventy - fourth Congress , and a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1940 and 1944 . Izac was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy - fifth and to the four succeeding Congresses ( January 3 , 1937 – January 3 , 1947 ) . He lost his reelection bid in 1946 to the Eightieth Congress . Interested in lumbering , Izac raised thoroughbred cattle on a farm in Gordonsville , Virginia , before residing in Bethesda , Maryland . Izac was a resident of Fairfax , Virginia , from 1988 until his death in 1990 . He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery . At the time of his death , he was the last living MOH recipient from World War I . Edouard Izac had 5 children and 19 grand children and 25 great grand children . Inspection of liberated concentration camps . In 1945 , at the request of General Eisenhower , Izac and eleven other Senators and Congressmen traveled to Europe where he inspected the recently liberated concentration camp of Buchenwald , Dachau and Nordausen Buchenwald . Congressman Izac co - authored a report of the trip with Senator Barkeley titled " Atrocities and Other Conditions in Concentration Camps in Germany " which was published on May 15 , 1945 by the 79th Congress . Medal of Honor citation . Rank and organization : Lieutenant , U . S . Navy . Place and date : Aboard German submarine U - 90 as prisoner of war , May 21 , 1918 . Entered service at : Illinois . Born : December 18 , 1891 , Cresco , Howard County , Iowa . Citation : When the U . S . S . President Lincoln was attacked and sunk by the German submarine U - 90 , on May 21 , 1918 , Lt . 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 was 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 reconfined , Lt . 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 .