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Awards of Dwight Eisenhower
- Justin Horn
- Dec 21, 2021
- 6 min read
Part 1: Pre-WWII
Medals and awards have a long tradition, not just in the United States military, but in militaries around the world. Historical sociologist Samuel Clark notes that medals are a relatively cheap means to award someone for a job well done. On a military uniform they can be worn and proudly displayed, and medals are an excellent means for an organization to display its cultural and institutional values.[1] Throughout his military career, Dwight David Eisenhower received many awards. These awards came from both the United States and from foreign allies. Examining the awards Eisenhower earned is an excellent way to explore his military career.
Mexican Border Service Medal
When Eisenhower graduated from West Point in 1915, he requested an assignment to the Philippines. Acquired by the United States during the Spanish-American War of 1898, the Philippines Islands were one of the least desirable assignments for military personnel. The young Lieutenant Eisenhower was so confident he would draw the assignment to the Philippines, he spent his money on purchasing tropical khaki field service and white dress uniforms. When Eisenhower received his assignment, it was not for the Philippines but for Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas. Tensions between the United States and Mexico resulted in President Woodrow Wilson ordering a military buildup along the border. Conditions along the border were rough and often men could not bring their families. This resulted in officers seeking other assignments, even to the Philippines, and resulted in lower ranking officers – such as Eisenhower - being assigned to the border. As a result of the new assignment, Eisenhower was forced to purchase new uniforms, olive drabs for garrison wear and blue dress uniforms, leaving him broke.[2]
While a financial setback for Ike, the assignment to Fort Sam Houston turned into a blessing in disguise. While stationed in San Antonio, Eisenhower met Mamie Geneva Doud. Ike and Mamie married on July 1, 1916. While in San Antonio, Eisenhower also learned valuable skills which served him later in his military career. Eisenhower served as Inspector Instructor to the 7th Illinois Infantry - a National Guard unit primarily made up of Chicago Irish men and commanded by Colonel Daniel Moriarity. As Moriarity’s Inspector, Eisenhower “wrote all his orders, prepared reports and other official papers for his signature, and became the power behind the Irishman’s throne.” Eisenhower later wrote, “As I look back on it, it was one of the valuable years of preparation in my early career.”[3] After returning from 10 days of leave Eisenhower took to marry Mamie, Ike asked for 20 days but was only granted 10, he was made Provost Marshal of Camp Wilson. Camp Wilson was a short-lived Post created near Fort Sam Houston to house the influx of troops as tensions with Mexico were high. After the Pancho Villa Expedition ended, Camp Wilson was closed and Eisenhower returned to Fort Sam Houston and to Company F, 9th Infantry. By 1917, America entered the First World War and was rapidly expanding the Army. As a result, the 9th was divided to make a new unit, the 57th Infantry which Eisenhower was assigned. It was Eisenhower’s job to equip and train this new unit, a job at which he excelled. The Army recognized Eisenhower’s organizational talents. As a result, Eisenhower received a new assignment, to Camp Colt in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to begin training a new Tank Corps. For his service in San Antonio, Eisenhower received the Mexican Border Service Medal.[4]
WWI Victory Medal
While at Camp Colt, the Army made use of Eisenhower’s organizational skills. He oversaw training, equipping, and organizing the new 301st Tank Battalion. Eisenhower received orders to go to Europe, but before he left, World War I ended in November 1918. As a result, Eisenhower never saw combat in WWI, which was a disappointment to the young officer. He consoled himself by reminding himself that his training of troops was a vital part of the war effort, but he wrote, “This kind of thinking was small comfort.”[5] While Eisenhower felt disappointed in not having seen combat, he was still awarded the WWI Victory Medal for his service.
1st Distinguished Service Medal
As the Great War ended, Eisenhower found himself facing an often-overlooked task of war, dispersing the large army for peace. Eisenhower wrote, “No human enterprise goes flat so instantly as an Army training camp when war ends.”[6] It was Eisenhower’s job to keep morale up as the Army conducted the slow bureaucratic process of dismissing men from service. This work served Eisenhower well after WWII when he oversaw dismantling an even larger Army for peacetime.
In 1922, Eisenhower’s work at Camp Colt was recognized when he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. The medal’s citation stated, “Eisenhower displayed unusual zeal, foresight, and marked administrative ability in the organization, training, and preparation for overseas service of technical troops of the Tank Corps.”[7]
After World War I Eisenhower volunteered to take part in an Army experiment. The Army wanted to see if it was possible to send a convoy across the country. In an era when there was no national highway system and most of the roads in the American heartland were still unpaved, it was not clear if the convoy would make it. By his own admission, Eisenhower volunteered to join “partly for a lark,” but he also joined “partly to learn” too.[8] And learn he did. Ike later wrote, the “trip would dramatize the need for better main highways” across America.[9] The journey took two months for the convoy to reach San Francisco. This journey, and Eisenhower’s later experience seeing the German Autobahn, convinced President Eisenhower to put an emphasis on road building leading to the modern American Interstate Highway system. While an informative and eventful time in Eisenhower’s life, the transcontinental convoy did not earn Eisenhower any military honors.
Panama - Order of Vasco Nuñez de Balboa and Order of Manuél Amador Guerrero
After the convoy, a pure tragedy rocked the young Eisenhower family. Eisenhower’s three-year-old son, Doud Dwight “Icky” Eisenhower, contracted and died of scarlet fever. In his 1967 autobiography, Eisenhower wrote, the loss of Icky “was the greatest disappointment and disaster in my life, the one I have never been able to forget completely.”[10] After the tragedy, Eisenhower received orders to report to Panama in 1922.
Eisenhower’s time in Panama proved “one of the most interesting and constructive of my life.”[11] This was in no small part to Eisenhower’s service under General Fox Conner. General Conner became Eisenhower’s greatest mentor. Eisenhower wrote, “General Conner was a sort of graduate school in military affairs and the humanities, leavened by the comments and discourses of a man who was experienced in his knowledge of men and their conduct. I can never adequately express my gratitude to this one gentleman, for it took years before I fully realized the value of what he had led me through… in a lifetime of association with great and good men, he is the one more or less invisible figure to whom I owe an incalculable debt.”[12]
Years later, in 1946, General Eisenhower returned on a trip to Panama. Panamanian President Enrique A. Jimenez presented Eisenhower with the Order of Vasco Nuñez de Balboa “for distinguished diplomatic services and contributions to international relations.”[13] In 1956, now President, Eisenhower made one last trip to Panama as part of a larger trip to Central and South America, and Panama bestowed on Ike its highest honor, the Order of Manuél Amador Guerrero.
Philippines - Distinguished Service Star
20 years after Eisenhower’s 1915 failure to receive an assignment to the Philippines, he final got his Philippine assignment in 1935. In the Philippines, Eisenhower served under General Douglas MacArthur as Assistant to the U.S. Army Military Advisor. During the late 1930s, the US Army’s instructions were to oversee an initiative to ready the Philippines for independence. Eisenhower served as a military adviser to the Philippine Army and regularly advocated for more funding from the US Congress for the Philippines defenses. For his efforts, the Philippine government awarded Eisenhower the Distinguished Service Star in December 1939 for his service.
American Defense Service Medal
While Eisenhower was stationed in the Philippines, tensions on the world stage reached critical mass. Japan was at war with China and occupying Manchuria. In Europe, Hitler embarked on his expansionist dreams and invaded Poland in September 1939. The United States remained officially at peace until the attack on Pearl Harbor and Hitler’s declaration of war brought the US into the worldwide conflict in December 1942. While America was still technically at peace before the Pearl Harbor attack, President Franklin Roosevelt recognized the rising world tensions and authorized the American Defense Service Medal.[14] The Medal was awarded to US Military members who served on active duty between 8 September 1939 and 7 December 1941. Eisenhower was awarded the Medal along with a “Foreign Clasp” symbolized by the bronze star, as he was stationed in the Philippines in 1939.
With the outbreak of WWII, Eisenhower’s military career entered a new phase, which will be explored in Part II.
[1] Samuel Clark, Distributing Status: The Evolution of State Honours in Western Europe, (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2016). [2] Dwight D. Eisenhower, At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends, (New York: Doubleday, 1967), 111-112. [3] Eisenhower, At Ease, 119. [4] Mexican Border Service Medal, 47-20.1 [5] Eisenhower, At Ease, 136. [6] Eisenhower, At Ease, 152. [7] “Dwight Eisenhower,” Hall of Valor: The Military Medals Database, accessed November 23, 2021, https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/17503. [8] Eisenhower, At Ease, 157. [9] Eisenhower, At Ease, 157. [10] Eisenhower, At Ease, 181. [11] Eisenhower, At Ease, 185. [12] Eisenhower, At Ease, 187. [13] “Eisenhower at Canal,” New York Times, August 13, 1946, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/08/13/140134362.html; and “Eisenhower in Panama,” New York Times, August 14, 1946, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/08/14/94056678.html?pageNumber=11. [14] Executive Order No. 8808 of June 28, 1941, 6 Fed. Reg. 3209 (July 2, 1941).
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