William “Billy” Mitchell

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to William “Billy” Mitchell, Brigadier General (Signal Corps), U.S. Army, for repeated acts of extraordinary heroism in action at Noyon, France, March 26, 1918; near the Marne River, France, during July, 1918; and in the St. Mihiel salient, France, September 12 to 16, 1918. For displaying bravery far beyond that required by his position as Chief of Air Service, 1st Army, American Expeditionary Forces, setting a personal example to the United States aviation by piloting his airplane over the battle lines since the entry of the United States into the war, some instances being a flight in a monoplane over the battle of Noyon on March 26, 1918, and the back areas, seeing and reporting upon the action of both air and ground troops, which led to a change in our aviation’s tactical methods; a flight in a monoplane over the bridges which the Germans had laid across the Marne during July 1918, which led to the first definite reports of the location of these bridges and the subsequent attack upon the German troops by our air forces; daily reconnaissances over the lines during the battle of St. Mihiel salient, September 12 to 16, securing valuable information of the enemy troops in the air and on the ground, which led to the excellent combined action by the allied air services and ground troops particularly this battle.