Fred A. Tillman

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Fred A. Tillman, Second Lieutenant (Field Artillery), U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action at Reims, France, June 26, 1918. Second Lieutenant Tillman aroused the admiration of all the French first-line infantrymen when making an infantry liaison west of Reims, France, June 26, 1918. He flew over the enemy lines at an altitude of only 50 meters, in spite of violent machine-gun and antiaircraft fire. Shot down between the lines, with his plane riddled with bullets and his pilot severely wounded, he picked up his pilot in his arms and carried him through heavy fire more than 200 meters to the French first lines, after he himself was wounded in the neck.