The first Americans to earn the Distinguished Service Cross were not combat soldiers but two women serving as nurses with the British Army before the U.S. entered World War I.
On Aug. 17, 1917, Nurses Beatrice MacDonald and Helen McClelland of the Army Nurse Corps Reserve were assigned to a surgical team at the British Casualty Clearing Station Number 61 near Lillers, France.
During a German night air raid, MacDonald and McClelland continued caring for their patients despite bombs raining down all around them. When explosion wounded MacDonald, causing her to lose sight in one eye, McClelland treated her fellow nurse along with the other wounded service members.
Their actions under fire were the combat actions first deemed worthy of the Army’s then-new Distinguished Service Cross, which had been officially created by Congress on Jan. 2, 1917. The two were awarded the Cross on July 9, 1918.
Since the award was officially authorized by Congress as the nation’s second highest award for valor, over 20,000 service members have been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross or its sister awards, the Navy Cross or Air Force Cross, which are often collectively referred to as the ‘service crosses’ (the Distinguished Flying Cross, given for acts of bravery in flight, falls farther down the hierarchy, in line with a Bronze Star).
Though MacDonald and McClelland were the first to earn the DSC after its introduction, they were not the first to actually receive it. Three 1st Infantry Division soldiers were the first to be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross during WW I. Army 2nd Lt. John Newport Greene of the 6th Field Artillery, and Sgt. William Norton and Pvt. Patrick Walsh, both of Company I, 18th Infantry, went above and beyond the call of duty on March 1, 1918, earning the Distinguished Service Cross and awarded on March 18, 1918.
Historian Doug Sterner believes that the Distinguished Service Cross and its many recipients tend to be overlooked in military history. A two-time Bronze Star recipient in Vietnam, Sterner has researched valor awards for decades and published dozens of books on the three highest tiers of U.S. valor awards: the Medal of Honor, the service crosses, and the Silver Star.
He maintains that combat actions rewarded with a Medal of Honor versus those that get service crosses are often indistinguishable in their bravery and danger but get split apart later in the awards process.
“What stands out to me is that as a nation, we’re myopically focused on the Medal of Honor. Now, civilians generally can’t tell the difference between a Medal of Honor and a Good Conduct Medal, which is great because anybody can say, ‘Hey, my dad got a medal,’ even if it’s a Good Conduct Medal,” Sterner said. “But among veterans, we can distinguish that difference, and I am concerned that we do not realize what the Service Cross is supposed to distinguish what the Service Cross, Navy Cross, and subsequently, the Air Force Cross represents. They represent an act of valor, that to somebody who got the second-highest combat decoration, in many cases, simply because the clerk wasn’t as good at writing up the after-action reports.”
President Woodrow Wilson ordered the establishment of the Distinguished Service Cross on Jan. 2, 1918. The U.S. Mint at Philadelphia minted the first 100 in 1918. The Navy Cross was introduced in 1919, and the Air Force Cross in 1960. Of note, the Coast Guard Service Cross was established in 2010 but has not yet been awarded.
Sterner said it’s time to understand that valor awards are based on the criteria set for each, and the actions performed to earn the award are nothing short of incredible, and they are not less than each other.
“There have been approximately 20,000 service crosses awarded in history, as compared to, say, for instance, a Silver Star, which is nothing to sneeze at, which has been awarded about 130,000 to 240,000 times,” Sterner said. “So the DSC, Navy Cross, and the Air Force Cross are quite major awards. At a time when our number of Medal of Honor recipients living is down to 60, there are hundreds of Service Cross recipients, and we should also focus on them as some of our most highly decorated heroes.”
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