Photo of PFC Clemon Turner - Certificate of Merit, Silver Lifesaving Medal, Distinguished Service Medal

1,952 · January 3

Hi all.
While browsing online, I found a very nice portrait photo.

Portrait of PFC Clemon Turner (1886-1953), soldier in the Mounted Service School Detachment, Fort Riley, Kansas.

PFC Turner wears the Certificate of Merit medal (No. 314), the Silver Life-Saving Medal, and the Distinguished Service Medal (awarded in lieu of the CoM), all awarded for actions while rescuing another soldier from drowning (along with Pvt. Robert Newhouse) on the Calumpang River in southern Luzon, Philippines while serving in K/24th Infantry in November 1914.

Only about 21 soldiers received the Silver Life-saving medal and Certificate of Merit for the same action.

https://digital.lib.ku.edu/ku-pennell/5029

This image is from the Joseph Pennell photo collection, from the Kansas University Digital Collection.

Searching "soldier" in the collection shows hundreds of images, mostly of soldiers from Fort Riley in the 1900s-1920s.

https://digital.lib.ku.edu/islandora/search/soldier?type=edismax&cp=ku-pennell%3Aroot

Image of numbered CoM list from LTC Gleim's "Certificate of Merit" book. Other sources are Military Times Hall of Valor, NY Historic Newspapers, Ancestry .com, Find a Grave.