Army & Navy – MEDALS: Signs of Action

One year of World War II put enough American fighters into action to earn for them more than 3.838 medals.* Army heroes won 2,298; the Navy’s, 1,388; Marines, 147; Coast Guard, 5. Most decorated: the Navy’s Lieut. Commander John Bulkeley, 5; the Army’s Lieut. Colonel Felix Hardison, 8.†

Highest U.S. award is the Congressional Medal of Honor, which President Roosevelt conferred last week on two heroic officers of the Battle of Guadalcanal: posthumously to his onetime White House aide, Rear Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan, and Rear Admiral Norman Scott. Cited also for the Medal of Honor was Commander Bruce McCandless, the 31-year-old communications officer who took command of the cruiser San Francisco when Admiral Callaghan and the captain were killed. Said the President to Lieut, (j.g.) Daniel J. Callaghan Jr.: “And so, Jud, I give you the finest thing that has ever been given to your father.” Total Medal of Honor awards: Army, 6; Navy, 25; Marines, 3. Other awards:

Distinguished Service Medal. Army, 48; Navy, 40. Sample citation (to Lieut. General Mark Clark): “For his hazardous feat in traveling by submarine to Algiers to conduct negotiations with French officials.”

Distinguished Service Cross, or Navy Cross. Army, 252; Navy, 522; Marines, 107; Coast Guard, 1. Sample case: Sergeant LeRoy C. Anderson, first selectee so honored, for destroying Japanese machine-gun nests on Bataan by leading a small group of tanks against them, thus enabling the American forces to regain the lost positions.

Distinguished Flying Cross (airmen only). Army, 345; Navy, 377; Marines, 34. Sample case: Ensign Harry Bonaparte Gibbs. As a combat pilot, in two successive days’ fighting in the Coral Sea Battle, he shot down a Jap plane and helped sink or damage a Jap carrier.

Silver Star. Army, 661; Navy, 117; Marines, 1; Coast Guard, 4. Sample case: Captain Nathaniel Blanton of the 19th Bombardment Group, who, leading eight planes, intercepted nine Japanese bombers and six Zero fighters over Java. He shot down the Jap flight leader and by his own leadership helped to make a perfect attack.

Air Medal. Army, 158; Navy, 155. Sample citation (to Lieut. Lloyd A. Smith, for taking part in the Marshall Islands attack): “In the face of heavy anti-aircraft fire he made several successful dive-bombing attacks against enemy ships and shore installations.”

Purple Heart (Army only), 878. Sample case: Father John Duffy, “for singularly meritorious action” when wounded.

Soldier’s Medal (no compilation). Sample case: Sergeant James C. Bowers, who was on hand when a Mather Field, Calif. warehouse caught fire. He entered at great personal danger, removed boxes of burning flares and extinguished the fire.

Legion of Merit (newest U.S. medal). Navy, 20; Allies, 2. Sample-case: Water Tender Leo M. Savage, who “immediately after the explosion [aboard the torpedoed destroyer Blakeley’] secured the boiler fires . . . shifted fuel oil … relighted fires . . . contributed to the absence of panic.”

Navy & Marine Corps Medal. Navy, 72; Marines, 2. Sample citation (to Shipfitter William Stanley Thomas) : “He went to the assistance of Commander F. Rohow, who had been injured [in the Pearl Harbor attack] and was floating in the water in a state of shock. He kept the Commander afloat until rescued.”

* Field awards, not yet reported to Washington, will greatly increase this figure. †t Most decorated U.S. citizen is Douglas Mac-Arthur: Medal of Honor, D.S.C. with Oak Leaf Cluster, D.S.M. with Oak Leaf Cluster, Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster, Silver Star with six Oak Leaf Clusters. He won the Medal of Honor in World War II.