
-AUTHOR AND HISTORIAN-
DAVE SCHWIND
Who were these men?
The men who received medals from the Soviet Union represented a vast cross section of the United States. Prior to the war, some of the men were unemployed. Others worked in construction. Some were farmers. A few had prior military service. Many of the officers had already graduated from college and some were well established as successful lawyers, engineers, and businessmen. With the start of the war, some were drafted, some joined voluntarily. All of them, however, found themselves on the front lines, sailing through the frozen waters in the Arctic convoys of the Murmansk Run or in the North Atlantic, defending civilization against the Axis forces of Germany, Italy, and Japan.
Their wartime experiences varied greatly. Some saw action in every theater while others, following the event for which they earned their award, returned to the United States and remained in support and administrative roles. A handful, showing the same toughness that earned them commendations for valor in the most extreme circumstances, even ended up on the wrong side of military law and found themselves in the brig. Sadly, a small number of recipients did not make it through the war. Several died from illnesses acquired while on the Arctic convoys, others died during fighting in the Pacific. One of the most famous recipients died from his own hand after conducting an amazingly successful tactical operation.
Following the end of the war, a handful of the men remained on active duty and made the service their career. Others returned to the lives they had known before the war. Some of the men went to college, others returned to their farms or factories. Some became immensely successful, to include a state lieutenant governor and a Secretary of the Navy. Others sadly faded into obscurity, dying without family and without anyone to remember who they were or what they had done. It is for all of these men that I wrote my book; to serve as a rememberance of who they were and what they did, no matter what turns their lives took.
The list of recipients, in alphabetical order:
William R. Abbott
Norman O.W. Adams Jr.
Arthur L. Adler
Edward T. Anderson
Emmett D. Anderson
Philip R. Anderson
Clyde N. Andrews
Howard M. Avery
Letson S. Balliett
Robert L. Baughan
Donald S. Biggs
Roy M. Billings
Renald H. Blake Jr.
Jules H. Bloch Jr.
Ralph E. Boucher
Eli P. Bourg
Maurice Breen
Rufus T. Brinn
Alex X. Brokas
Willard W. Brown
Philip B. Brown
Thomas E. Brown
Robert E. Buckbee
Howard E. Carraway
William A. Carter
Milton C. Casey
Oswald I. Cassidy
Joseph J. Chatterton, Jr.
John H. Church, Jr.
William Cole
Wilbur P. Collins
George C. Cooper
John Corbus
Kendall H. Cram
John H. Currant
Walter R. Daley
Lowell L. Davis
Garnett C. DeBaun
Eaton P. Decottes
Louis DeGennaro
Thomas E. Delate
James J. Delhom
Marcel Desgalier, Jr.
Thomas J. Dixon, Jr.
Charles E. Dole
Francis L. Duncan
Bradford M. Dyer
George A. Enloe
Arthur L. Farmer
William H. Farrar
Edward M. Fetherston
Frederick S. Fink, Jr.
Junior C. Forney
Wilma S. Fowler
Albert D. Friday
Gallegos, Faustin
John W. Gannon
Frank C. Gay
Ward L. Gemmer
Robert C. Giffen
Joseph T. Gillen
Norman C. Gillette
George C. Goddard
Harry M. Gossman
Cecil B. Graff
Ernest E. Grandey, Jr.
William J. Green
John G. Grotenrath, Jr.
Walter J. Gudat
James N. Guyton, Jr.
Leland Hall
Harold L. Handshuh
William T. Harkins
John H. Harmon
Leonard E. Harmon
Charles C. Harris
John H. Harshaw
Sidney M. Hay
Cecil R. Haycraft
Robert W. Hayman
Elbert S. Heim
Robert G. Henderson
Alexander S. Henry
Henry K. Hewitt
Harry W. Hill
Richard E. Hocken
Edward C. Hoban
Norman D. Hodson
Norman C. Hoffman
Gerald G. Hogan
Stewart B. Holt
Romuald P. Holubowicz
Robert B. Hopgood
Joseph D. Horn
Leonard D. Horton
Merlin G. Houdeshell
Mason M. Houghton
Blake C. Howard, Jr.
Bert J. Hudson
Blake Hughes
Paul L. Hunsinger
Charles H. Hutchins
Norman E. Hyams
Kyle V. Johnson
Roy W. Johnson
Dallas H. Jones
Harry Jones, Jr.
David M. Kellogg
Thomas Kinaszczuk
Sheldon H. Kinney
Paul B. Kinney
William R. Kirby
Elden S. Kirby
Lewis W. Kroeger
Rudolph H. Kroetz
Alexander Lague
John L. Laird
Maurice E. Larson
Ernest J. Lazetera
Joseph D. Leahy
George B. Lennig
Paul O. Lessard
Julius W. Lintlom
Arthur D. Maddalena
Jeremiah E. Mahoney
Bernard A. Malloy
Clarence H. Marihugh
Louis D. Marks
Donald F. Mason
Andrew O. Mathson
Albert Maynard
John W. McDole
Arthur McDonald, Jr.
John A. McGinnis
William M. McLane
John T. McNaughton
Michael L. Merlo
Robert C. Millard
Wesley N. Miller
Don P. Moon
Howell S. Murray
Oman A. Nelson
Edwin B. Newman
Thomas Nightingale
Robert A. Nisbet
George J. Norton
Howard E. Orem
Joseph O'Savage
John J. Ours
Mario J. Pagnotta
Milton Parker
Raymond P. Peer
Luther W. Perdue
James W. Pernell
Francis P. Perret
Willie H. Phillips
David A. Pickler
Francis C. Pollard
Wallace S. Porter
David O. Puckett, Jr.
Floyd E. Richards
Robert B. Ricks
Howard S. Roberts
Rex E. Robertson
Daniel J. Rooker
Charles Rotz
George D. Roullard
Wilson D. Rutherford
Harry F. Ryan
Irving R. Saum, Jr.
William A. Schilbe
Gustav W. Schill, Jr.
Dan R. Schwartz
Norbert L. Schwartz
William A. Sessions
William S. Sharp
Milton J. Sherbring
Francis M. Shipley, Jr.
Bernard C. Sissler
Harvey C. Smalley, Jr.
George T. Smith
Harrison Smith
William B.C. Smith
Herbert M. Sonneborn, Jr.
Percy L. Spann
Gifford H. Starnes
Milton A. Stein
Jack H. Stewart
Richard M. Stone
Merrill R. Stone, Jr.
John R. Sulton, Jr.
William Tepuni
Allan A. Thompson
Paul W. Thompson
Theodore S. Thueson
Kenneth W. Tipping
Senua Trahan
Frank F. Townsend
Charles M. Ulrich
Donald L. Vandiver
Charles E. Walters
Robert H. Wanless
John B. Watson
Paul N. Webb
Lloyd R. Weeks
Brian G. Welch
Robert Wilcox
James D. Williams
Hubert Williams
Harry P. Wilson
Junior Wishon
Albert F. Wohlers
Morton E. Wolfson
Kenneth L. Wright
Hugh P. Wright
Albert O. Yingling
Gilbert S. Young






