He graduated with the highest grades ever attained by any student up to that time.
Upon his return to the United States in 1925, 1stLt Edson first took an extensive course in advanced aviation tactics at Kelly Field, Texas, and then attended the Company Officers' Course at Quantico, Virginia. Here he had his introduction to the semitropical islands of the Marianas with which his name was later to become so closely linked. Soon after, he was ordered to the Marine Air Station at Guam. His interest in military aviation then prompted him to apply for flight training in Pensacola, Florida. His efforts greatly contributed to the organization and establishment of this "University for Marines." This was followed by a short tour in Louisiana guarding the mail. Promoted to first lieutenant on 4 June 1920, he spent the two years at Marine Barracks, Quantico, Virginia, as the Adjutant-Registrar of the fledgling Marine Corps Institute.
#Do medal of honor recipients get promoted series
Owing to the failure of the United States to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, this mission, however, was never carried out.įollowing the end of World War I, he began a diversified series of assignments that were to qualify him for the high commands he was to hold in later years. This regiment saw no combat, but during the last six months of his European tour, 2dLt Edson commanded Company D, 15th Separate Marine Battalion, which had been organized for the express purpose of assisting in the holding of a plebiscite in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. In September of the next year he sailed for France with the 11th Marines. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Regular Marine Corps on 9 October 1917.
Thus began a career which was to be characterized by its diversity and distinguished even by the high standards of the Marine Corps. He returned to the University in September 1916, but joined the Marine Corps Reserve on 26 June the following year. Military service interrupted, however, and on 27 June 1916, Pvt Edson of the First Vermont National Guard Regiment, was sent to Eagle Pass, Texas, for duty on the Mexican border. He attended the University of Vermont for two years. Alvin York, another WWI soldier who was awarded the Medal of Honor.Major General Merritt Austin Edson, known as "Red Mike," was born in Rutland, Vermont, on 25 April 1897, and reared in Chester, Vermont. Romo and others like to compare the heroics of Serna with Sgt. Serna was told he was denied a promotion in rank that would qualify him because he could not read or write English well enough to sign reports. Romo said the omission of the additional details on the number of enemy soldiers he killed and captured from Serna's Distinguished Service Cross documents appears to be “almost like they watered down his citation so they wouldn’t have to give him the Medal of Honor.”Īccording to Hispanics in America’s Defense, a Department of Defense pamphlet published in 1989 when former Vice President Dick Cheney was the defense secretary, Serna was told by an officer he had to be of higher rank than a "buck" private, the lowest rank, to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
Will Hurd, R-Texas, and published in the El Paso Times. Pershing, according to a 2016 opinion piece written by former U.S. His Distinguished Service Cross was presented by Gen. Serna was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, two Croix de Guerre with Palm by France and the Croce al Merito di Guerra by the Italian government. Serna performed acts of bravery that were not fully documented in official citations by the military, said Andrés Tijerina, a Vietnam veteran and award-winning historian who has researched Serna.