Capt Jack S Hart, USMC

Hart, Jack S. Captain #01152 23rd and 81st Cos. 6th MGB. WIA/DSC, NC, AEF AND 2ND DIV. SILVER STAR CITATIONS (4 of them) C.B.E (Commander British Empire) and FRENCH CROIX DE GUERRE WITH GILT STAR.

recommended for the Medal of Honor by the 6th MG Battalion Commander on Jan. 21st, 1919. The recommendation was approved by AEF 2nd Division Board for consideration of Recommendations on Jan. 29, 1919 and by the Commanding General 2nd Div. (Lejuene) on Jan.. 31, 1919. It was then forwarded to the Adjutant General, AEF (F.L. Whitley) for meritorious deeds performed in the St. Mihiel sector. Unfortunately for Jack Hart and the Marine Corps, Whitley disapproved the recommendation for the Medal of Honor on Feb. 10, 1919. He was instead awarded the Navy Cross. The following is the worded recommendation of the Medal of Honor for Jack Hart: "Capt. Jack S. Hart, at 7:00 am on September 15, 1918, went forward with the first wave of the infantry battalion to which his machine gun company was attached. This battalion was then attacking the wooded ridge west of Jaulny, near Thiaucourt, in the St. Mihiel Sector. Capt.. Hart, looking for machine gun positions, and the advancing infantry, were caught in a flanking machine gun fire from the left, where at the time no enemy were supposed to be. He sent back a runner to bring up his guns, and further reconnoitered the left flank of the attacking wave. In doing this he ran onto a machine gun nest in a thicket, was fired upon point blank at a range of a few yards, and was severely wounded in the right arm. The closeness of the Germans prevented their concealment and he dashed at them, firing his pistol. they scattered away from two machine guns, some of them shouting "Kamerad" and holding their hands above their heads, others reaching for hand grenades. He called upon to surrender, and rounded up seventeen men. Though Capt. Hart was weak from loss of blood he conducted these prisoners back to our lines, turning them over to his company before allowing himself to be evacuated. The capture of these two guns and seventeen prisoners, accomplished by one officer who was alone at the time, was under the circumstances a clearly beyond the call of duty. Alone and wounded, with such tremendous odds before him, he could not rightly have been censured, had he, instead of boldly attacking the enemy, decided that further resistance was useless and surrendered himself, which would have been the decision of any but the most exceptional brave. By the performance of this act, our leading waves were freed of the destructive flanking fire from these guns and were enabled to move forward and establish a line on high ground where they could not be dislodged." Witnesses of the above deed were First Sgt. Harry S. Remington, Jr. 108503 and 2nd Lt. Vernon Bourdette, of Company "D" 6th MGBN.

Thanks to Frank Anguiano III and Therry Schwartz for this information.