Joseph F. Kilroy
Home Town: Philadelphia, PA
Distinguished Service Cross
World War I
U.S. Army
General Orders No. 37, W.D., 1919
The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Joseph F. Kilroy, First Sergeant, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Verdun, France, November 4, 1918. Sergeant Kilroy led a patrol of five men to flank a machine-gun nest, but heavy machine-gun fire caused the loss of the other members of the patrol. He picked up the automatic rifle of a fallen comrade, and by his effective and severe fire rendered valuable aid in breaking up a local counterattack, which was forming.