Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The Most decorated American Soldier of World War II

Via A Large Regular, we run across the astonishing story of MSG Lewellyn Chilson.  The citation for his second Distinguished Service Cross reads like it should be a movie script:


Notice the dates - almost a year had passed since the action.  The reason that it took so long is because he was submitted for so many medals that the Army put extra effort into investigating them - they didn't believe it at first.  It was such a story that President Truman himself pinned seven combat decorations on him in a White House ceremony.



It took a lot to kill MSG Chilson: he survived the crash of a C-124 Skymaster in 1961.  But as with many of his age, the larger than life bit never translated to civilian life, and he died too young (at 61) in 1981.  It seems that he was truly a warrior, and running a gas station just didn't need that skill set.

Among his awards are the Distinguished Service Cross (with two Oak Leaf Clusters), the Silver Star (with two Oak Leaf Clusters), the Bronze Star (with Combat "V" and two Oak Leaf Clusters), the Purple Heart (with two Oak Leaf Clusters), and the French Croix de Guerre (with Palm).  And he was recommended - twice - for the Medal of honor.

Holy cow.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, indeed.

I thought Audie Murphy was the most decorated U.S. soldier of WWII.

MAJ Mike

Paladin said...

"Sergeant Chilson has always been an inspiration to the men of his Company.."

And he continues to be an inspiration, 75+ years later.

TinCan Assassin said...

Are you sure that's not Chuck Norris under another name?

Goober said...

I, also, am under the impression that Audie Murphy was the most decorated soldier in WWII - in fact, I was under the impression that Mr. Murphy was and still is the most decorated soldier in US history.

kx59 said...

Well no wonder. With a name like Lewellyn, I bet he grew up tough.
That's almost as bad as a boy named Sue.
Great bit of history there BP.

Borepatch said...

MAJ Mike, I read this on Wikipedia. It's entirely reliable. ;-)

Kx59, Bill, or George, anything but Lewellyn!

Heh.

NotClauswitz said...

And I thought Sgt. Rock was a comic book guy...