Thomas J. Cavanaugh
Home Town: Pittsburgh, PA
General Orders No. No. 116, W.D., 1918
The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Thomas J. Cavanaugh, First Sergeant, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action at Fismette, France, August 11 and 12, 1918. After he had been wounded by shrapnel, Sergeant Cavanaugh refused to go to the rear but directed the operations of his platoon in resisting enemy attacks for an hour and a half, when he finally collapsed. The following day he returned and unhesitatingly selected a position of great danger to himself in order to direct machine-gun fire upon enemy snipers. By his courageous exposure he thus made possible the evacuation of twenty-five wounded men across an exposed area and over the Vesle River.
