Legion of Merit (Class Officer)

[Thierry]

Bonjour,

(Sorry for my english)

It seemed to me that the rank high of the Legion of merit didn't award with American's soldiers,

and yet there are exeptions...

General Lemnitzer :

- Army DSM (with three oak leaf clusters),

- Navy DSM,

- Air Force DSM,

- Silver Star Medal,

- Legion of Merit (Officer) and (Legionnaire) degrees,

- American Defense Service Medal,

- European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal (with two campaign stars),

- American Campaign Medal,

- WWII Victory Medal,

- Army of Occupation Medal,

- National Defense Service Medal,

- Korean Service Medal (with two service stars),

- British Order of the British Empire

- French Legion d'Honneur (Grand Cross),

- French M?daille militaire,

- French Croix de guerre,

- Italian Order Crown of Italy (Grand Cross),

- Italian Order of Savoy,

- United Nations Service Medal,

- Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation,

- ETC...

And Presidential Medal of Freedom (June 23, 1987).

Thierry

[Thierry]

.../...

[David S]

You english is just fine

You are correct in your observations, very few American Officers were awarded the LoM (Officer) grade

From Wikipedia

At the beginning of the North African campaign, General Lyman L. Lemnitzer accompanied General Mark Wayne Clark by submarine to North Africa. Upon arrival, about 60 officers were awarded the Legion of Merit and were among the first awarded the medal. By some misunderstanding as to the rules governing the awards, these 60 American officers were awarded the degree of Officer. According to Lemnitzer, President Roosevelt was quite annoyed but did not rescind the awards. These were the only U.S. officers awarded the Legion of Merit with a degree.

Allright not the best source . . .but I've seen the info elswhere prior to the age of the computer

Edited January 2, 2008 by David S

[hunyadi]

Whats interesting and ommitted in the list of awards is his WW1 Victory Medal for being at West Point when the war for the USA began.

[Guest IMHF]

"Holy Moly" he is stacked:

SSG Luna, Lorenzo