Robert Winthrop Kean

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Robert Winthrop Kean, First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Vierzy, France, July 18 & 19, 1918. First Lieutenant Kean accompanied two successive waves of infantry in the attack on Vierzy and Villemontoire, July 18, exposing himself with almost reckless disregard of the enemy’s heavy shell and machine-gun fire, secured valuable information for the artillery as to the location of our own and the enemy’s lines, and personally took command of an isolated 9th Infantry machine-gun detachment that had lost its officers by heavy fire. Lieutenant Kean on July 18 and 19 actually accompanied three successive waves of the 23d Infantry, the 9th Infantry, and an attack by French infantry without rest. His endurance and courage were exceptional and most inspiring upon this occasion, and upon all other occasions of attack by the 2d Division