Medal of Honor and DSC Recommendations -- A Glimpse into the WW1 Processes

[bertmedals]

I recently picked up portions of a documents archive consisting of some material on WW1 decorations.  I thought the medal collectors on the USMF might find them interesting since they give a small glimpse into the workings of the AEF system for valor awards.

From my conversations with the person I got these from, these came out of an estate in Virginia.  From the little I have been able to piece together, I believe they came from either the granddaughter or great-grandaughter, or possibly the grand niece of Brigadier General R. Townsend Heard.  General Heard had a distinguished military career commanding a battery and later battalion in the 6th FA in WW1, holding several high-level staff positions between the wars including being involved with the establishment of the Purple Heart and Legion of Merit, and serving on Gen MacArthur’s G-2 staff in WW2.  His father, John Wilkinson Heard, was also a Brigadier General and earned the Medal of Honor in the Spanish American War.  His brother, Jack Whitehead Heard, West Point 1910, was an Army Aviation pioneer and rose to Major General in WW2.

The first document concerns the consideration for award of the Medal of Honor to 5 members of the 6th FA for acts that they had already been (or would be) awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.  The memorandum requests recommendations for the Medal of Honor for the five soldiers and includes the information requirements to be provided in the recommendations.  It is interesting that this action was initiated at AEF Headquarters apparently based on a review of the DSC recommendations for the five soldiers. 

As it turned out, none of the five soldiers received the Medal of Honor but all five were decorated with the Distinguished Service Cross (Private Lietzan and Private Vallely posthumously).  Please note that in the document Corporal Louis Liberman’s and Private Joseph Lietzan’s names are misspelled.

Photos of the memorandum and information requirements for the Medal of Honor recommendations are attached.

The second document is a recommendation for the Distinguished Service Cross for Sergeant Ridge J. Sly, 6th FA.  I had not come across an initiating-level recommendation for the WW1 DSC before and thought it might be of interest.  Sergeant Sly was eventually awarded the Silver Star Citation for the action that this recommendation describes. It was the same action in which Private Lietzan and Private Vallely, named in the Medal of Honor memorandum, were killed and earned the DSC.  Sergeant Sly appears to have converted the SSC to the Silver Star medal sometime after 1932 when that was authorized.  Attached are photos of the recommendation for Sergeant Sly and a photo of his tombstone showing the Silver Star.

By the way, Sergeant Sly’s DSC recommendation was made by Captain Clive Cameron Day who in later life was Chairman of the Board for Nestlé Company!

 

Thanks,

Dennis
 

[MAW]

That is really cool to see.

 

There genuinely seems to be a fine line in these awards at times.

 

Thanks for sharing them.

[everforward]

Interesting read, thank you for posting..!

[bertmedals]

MAW & everforward,

Thanks for your comments.  The "fine line" between these awards is very interesting.  While some of the standards appear to be objective at least to some degree, in my experience and opinon there will allways be a significant amount of subjectivity to the decision on which medal to award.  I imagine that, in large part, is the driver behind what seems to be a growing amount of time between the act being recognized and the actual award for the higher decorations.  No telling what the ultimate impact of more visual evidence (videos, etc.) will be on valor awards.

 

Dennis