James Earnest “Buck” Karnes was born on July 20, 1889, in Arlington in West Tennessee and grew up in Knoxville. After the start of World War I, Karnes enlisted in the Tennessee National Guard and was assigned to Company D, 117th Infantry, 30th Division of the United States Army. Karnes’s division was sent to France to support the Meuse-Argonne offensive, the final Allied push of World War I.

On October 8, 1918, Sergeant Karnes’s company was near Estrées, France, when a German machine gun nest halted the unit’s advance. Karnes and fellow Medal of Honor recipient Calvin Ward got fed up with the situation, decided to affix bayonets, and charge the machine gun. In doing so, they killed three Germans and captured seven more, freeing their company to advance.

Karnes’s actions contributed to the final breaks in the Hindenburg Line. Karnes was awarded the Medal of Honor before returning home from the war.