Veteran in crisis? Dial 988 then press 1 · Text 838255 Next observance: Navy Birthday · October 13
Honoring American TroopsMedal of Honor Archive

Valor — second highest

Notable recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross

Extraordinary heroism in combat against an enemy, not justifying the Medal of Honor.

About this decoration

204 notable recipients

Names link to Wikipedia; ★ MoH marks people who also received the Medal of Honor (links to their profile here).

NameLifeBranchWar
John McCain1936–2018United States NavyVietnam War
Douglas MacArthur ★ MoH1880–1964Philippine ArmyWorld War I
George S. Patton1885–1945United States CavalryWorld War I
John J. Pershing1860–1948United States ArmyWorld War I
Vasily Chuikov1900–1982Red ArmyRussian Civil War
Audie Murphy ★ MoH1925–1971National Guard of the United StatesWorld War II
Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis1891–1969British ArmyWorld War I
Alexander Haig1924–2010United States ArmyKorean War
Paul Tibbets1915–2007United States Army Air ForcesWorld War II
Mark W. Clark1896–1984United States ArmyWorld War I
Dwight Filley Davis Sr.1879–1945militaryWorld War I
Curtis LeMay1906–1990Ohio National GuardKorean War
Richard Winters1918–2011United States ArmyWorld War II
Creighton Abrams1914–1974United States ArmyKorean War
Maxwell D. Taylor1901–1987United States ArmyKorean War
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ★ MoH1887–1944United States ArmyWorld War I
Bertram Home Ramsay1883–1945Royal NavyWorld War I
Virginia Hall1906–1982World War II
Courtney Hodges1887–1966United States ArmyWorld War I
Matthew Ridgway1895–1993United States ArmyKorean War
Henry Gunther1895–1918infantryWorld War I
Hal Moore1922–2017United States CavalryKorean War
Thomas Blamey1884–1951Australian ArmyWorld War I
Pierre Clostermann1921–2006French Air ForceWorld War II
Raoul Salan1899–1984French ArmyWorld War I
Ivan Yefimovich Petrov1896–1958Red ArmyRussian Civil War
Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV ★ MoH1883–1953United States ArmyWorld War I
Chesty Puller1898–1971United States Marine CorpsKorean War
Anthony McAuliffe1898–1975United States ArmyWorld War II
Charles Nungesser1892–1927World War I
Frederick C. Weyand1916–2010United States ArmyKorean War
Stanislav Poplavsky1902–1973Red ArmyEastern Front
René Bondoux1905–2001
James Norman Hall1887–1951British ArmyWorld War I
Emil Kapaun ★ MoH1916–1951United States ArmyKorean War
William F. Dean ★ MoH1899–1981United States ArmyKorean War
Oliver P. Smith1893–1977United States Marine CorpsKorean War
Gustave-Auguste Ferrié1868–1932military communications
Daniel Daly ★ MoH1873–1937United States Marine CorpsWorld War I
Thomas T. Handy1892–1982United States ArmyWorld War I
Linn Farrish1901–1944World War II
Vasily Badanov1895–1971infantryWorld War I
Maurice Rose1899–1945United States ArmyWorld War I
Royal C. Johnson1882–1939United States ArmyWorld War I
Henry Johnson ★ MoH1892–1929United States ArmyWorld War I
John William Vessey1922–2016United States ArmyKorean War
Randle McMurphyKorean War
Colin Kelly1915–1941United States Army Air CorpsWorld War II
Jerome Clarke Hunsaker1886–1984United States NavyWorld War I
David Hackworth1930–2005United States ArmyKorean War
Fyodor Dyachenko1917–1995infantryEastern Front
Julian Cook1916–1990United States ArmyWorld War II
Robert W. Grow1895–1985United States ArmyWorld War II
Arthur Dewey Struble1894–1983United States NavyWorld War I
François de Linarès1897–1955World War I
Ralph Ambrose O'Neill1896–1980United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
John Leonard Hines1868–1968United States ArmyWorld War I
Robert B. McClure1896–1973United States ArmyWorld War I
Robert H. Barrow1922–2008United States Marine CorpsKorean War
John Kizirian1928–2006United States ArmyKorean War
Charles T. Lanham1902–1978United States ArmyWorld War II
Jeannette Guyot1919–2016World War II
James J. Lindsay1932–2023United States ArmyVietnam War
Horatio Nelson Jackson1872–1955
Lansing Holden1896–1938World War I
Sam Dreben1878–1925United States ArmyWorld War I
John W. Mitchell1915–1995United States Air ForceKorean War
Albert Crahay1903–1991World War II
Glenn K. Otis1929–2013United States ArmyVietnam War
Yves Chataigneau1891–1969
Robert Alexander1863–1941United States ArmyWorld War I
Donald Hudson1895–1967United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
Douglas Campbell1896–1990United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
Fred Winchester Sladen1867–1945United States ArmyWorld War I
John Henry Parker1866–1942United States ArmyWorld War I
James K. Parsons1877–1960Spanish–American War
Robert Prince1919–2009United States ArmyWorld War II
Albin F. Irzyk1917–2018United States ArmyWorld War II
John P. Washington1908–1943United States ArmyWorld War II
Charles Oluf Herlofson1916–1984Royal Norwegian Navy
William Shemin ★ MoH1896–1973United States ArmyWorld War I
Edward Brooke Lee1892–1984Maryland Military DepartmentWorld War I
Théodore Tuffier1857–1929World War I
Jacques de Lesseps1883–1927World War I
Lucien Loizeau1879–1978French Armed ForcesWorld War I
Arthur Raymond Brooks1895–1991United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
Clayton Bissell1896–1972United States Air ForceWorld War I
Frederick W. Galbraith1874–1921United States ArmyWorld War I
Hamilton Coolidge1895–1918United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
John H. Hilldring1895–1974United States ArmyWorld War I
Reed Chambers1894–1972United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
Keith Payne1933Australian ArmyKorean War
Lonnie R. Moore1920–1956United States Air ForceKorean War
Manuel J. Fernandez1925–1980United States Air ForceKorean War
Royal N. Baker1918–1976United States Air ForceKorean War
Robert G. Thompson1915–1965International BrigadesWorld War II
Rudolph B. Davila ★ MoH1916–2002United States ArmyWorld War II
Forest K. Ferguson1919–1954United States ArmyWorld War II
Thomas Tackaberry1923–2017World War II
Gerald R. Johnson1920–1945United States Army Air CorpsWorld War II
Benjamin H. Vandervoort1917–1990United States ArmyWorld War II
Desmond Dreyer1910–2003Royal NavyWorld War II
Harrison C. Summers1918–1983United States ArmyWorld War II
Alexander A. Drabik1910–1993United States ArmyWorld War II
Karl H. Timmermann1922–1951United States ArmyWorld War II
Louis C. Menetrey1929–2009United States NavyVietnam War
William Ellsworth Kepner1893–1982United States Marine Corps
William Portwood Erwin1895–1927United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
Charles R. d'Olive1896–1974United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
Chester Wright1897–1933United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
David M. Peterson1894–1919World War I
Edgar Tobin1896–1954United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
Edward Peck Curtis1897–1987United States ArmyWorld War I
Frank Tompkins1868–1954World War I
Jacques Swaab1894–1963United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
James Beane1896–1918World War I
Joseph T. Angelo1896–1978United States ArmyWorld War I
Kenneth Porter1896–1988United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
Richard J. Meadows1931–1995United States ArmyKorean War
Donald Nichols1923–1992United States Air ForceKorean War
Robert B. Williams1901–1977United States ArmyWorld War II
James Muri1918–2013World War II
Edwin Ramsey1917–2013United States ArmyWorld War II
Robert B. Westbrook1917–1944California National GuardWorld War II
Ellis W. Williamson1918–2007World War II
Robert H. Soule1900–1952United States ArmyWorld War II
Max Ferguson Schneider1912–1959United States ArmyWorld War II
James F. Hollingsworth1918–2010United States ArmyWorld War II
John H. Hay1917–1995United States ArmyWorld War II
Paul F. Smith1915–2014United States ArmyWorld War II
Frank S. Bowen1905–1976World War II
Claiborne H. Kinnard Jr.1912–1966United States Army Air ForcesWorld War II
Roger M. Ramey1905–1963World War II
Claude J. Crenshaw1918–1972World War II
Ulysses G. McAlexander1864–1936American Indian Wars
John L. Hines Jr.1905–1986United States ArmyWorld War II
Charles R. Meyer1913–2001United States Army
Leon Goldsworthy1909–1994Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve
James B. Tapp1920–2014United States Air Force
I.B. Donalson1915–2006
Russell Lowell Maughan1893–1958World War I
Victor Strahm1895–1957United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
Joseph Brown Sanborn1855–1934United States ArmyWorld War I
Benjamin A Poore1863–1940United States ArmyWorld War I
Albert M. Jones1890–1967United States ArmyWorld War I
Henry Root Hill1876–1918World War I
Ivan Kamera1897–1952artillery branchWorld War I
Abraham Krotoshinsky1892–1953United States ArmyWorld War I
Arthur Edmond Easterbrook1893–1952Royal Air ForceWorld War I
Clinton Jones1892–1965United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
Gorman DeFreest Larner1897–1984World War I
Frank Hays1896–1988United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
Harold Buckley1896–1958United States Army Ambulance ServiceWorld War I
Hiram Iddings Bearss ★ MoH1875–1938United States Marine CorpsWorld War I
James Knowles1896–1971United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
James Armand Meissner1896–1936United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
Joseph Frank Wehner1895–1918United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
Karl Schoen1894–1918United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
Murray Guthrie1896–1985United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
Walter F. Murphy1929–2010United States Marine CorpsKorean War
William T. Whisner, Jr.1923–1989United States Air ForceKorean War
William T. Halton1917–1952United States Air ForceKorean War
Harold H. Dunwoody1919–2015United States ArmyKorean War
Leigh Vial1909–1943Royal Australian Air ForceWorld War II
Melvyn R. Paisley1924–2001United States Army Air ForcesWorld War II
Gerald W. Johnson1919–2002World War II
Charles T. Horner Jr.1916–1992World War II
Thomas J. Lynch1916–1944United States Army Air ForcesWorld War II
Stanley R. Larsen1915–2000World War II
Walter C. Beckham1916–1996World War II
Don M. Beerbower1921–1944World War II
Morton D. Magoffin1916–2007World War II
Mark E. Mitchell1965United States ArmyWar in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
Joseph T. Dawson1914–1998World War II
John St Aubyn, 4th Baron Saint Levan1919–2013
Urbane F. Bass1880–1918United States Army
Maxon S. Lough1886–1964United States Army
Clifford Bluemel1885–1973United States Army
James R. N. Weaver1888–1967United States Army
Donavon F. Smith1922–1974United States Air Force
Willard W. Millikan1918–1978
Donald S. Bryan1921–2012
Edwin L. Heller1918–2004
Leroy A. Schreiber1917–1944
Jack A. Bade1920–1963United States Army Air Forces
Robert Opie Lindsay1894–1952United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
Wilbert White1889–1918World War I
William Ponder1891–1947French Air ForceWorld War I
James Alexander Connelly, Jr1894–1944World War I
Abel Davis1874–1937World War I
George W. Furlow1893–1959United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
James Healy1895–1983United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
Joseph M. Baker1898–1928United States Marine CorpsWorld War I
Leonard Hammond1884–1945United States Army Ambulance ServiceWorld War I
Leslie Rummell1895–1919United States Army Air ServiceWorld War I
Orville Ralston1894–1942Royal Air ForceWorld War I
Remington Vernam1896–1918World War I
Henry Howard Whitney1866–1949Spanish–American War
Milton J. Foreman1863–1935Spanish–American War
Frank Wesley Fenno Jr.1902–1973United States NavyWorld War II
Henry William Brown1923–2008World War II
Samuel J. Brown1917–1990United States Army Air ForcesWorld War II
list of things named after John J. Pershing
Christian Channing Gross1895–1933United States Army