Distinguished Service Cross (United States) - Revocation

Revocation

In a number of cases, an award of the Distinguished Service Cross has later been revoked. In most cases, this has been for one of three reasons: the award was upgraded to the Medal of Honor, duplicate awards had been made to the same recipient for the same action by two different headquarters, or the award had been revoked to allow republication with a new and revised award citation. Such revocations have occurred over the history of the decoration.

One of the earliest such cases involves one of the most famous American soldiers of World War I, Alvin York, who initially received a Distinguished Service Cross which was upgraded to the Medal of Honor. And as noted above under "Notable Recipients", top American World War I ace pilot Eddie Rickenbacker originally received eight DSCs, but one was upgraded in 1930 to the Medal of Honor. In 1980, Roy Benavidez, a U.S. Army Special Forces veteran, had his Vietnam-era DSC upgraded to the Medal of Honor, which was presented to him in a February 1981 White House ceremony.

A number of DSC revocations and upgrades to the Medal of Honor were the result of reviews initiated by the Army or mandated by the United States Congress. In the early 1990s the Army began a review of discrimination against black soldiers in World War II, none of whom had received the Medal of Honor but several of whom had received lesser awards. Later, the Department of Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1996 provided for a "Review Regarding Upgrading of Distinguished-Service Crosses and Navy Crosses Awarded to Asian-Americans and Native American Pacific Islanders for World War II Service" and the National Defense Authorization Act for 2002 provided for a "Review Regarding Award of Medal of Honor to Certain Jewish American and Hispanic American War Veterans". There is currently a petition circulating to upgrade the Distinguished Service Cross of Major Richard Winters to a Medal of Honor.

In January 1997, as a result of its review, the Army revoked six awards of the Distinguished Service Cross to black soldiers and upgraded them to the Medal of Honor. These were to Vernon Baker, Edward A. Carter, Jr., John R. Fox, Willy F. James, Jr., Charles L. Thomas and George Watson (U.S. Army). In 2001, the Army officially revoked 21 awards of the Distinguished Service Cross and one of the Silver Star to Asian-American soldiers, mostly Japanese-American, whose awards were upgraded to the Medal of Honor. Among those whose DSC was upgraded was U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye. Others include Francis B. Wai and Rudolph B. Davila.

Jon E. Swanson, posthumously awarded a DSC in 1972, had this revoked in November 2005 (Department of the Army General Order No. 9 of 2005), after his DSC was upgraded to the Medal of Honor in December 2002 (Department of the Army General Order No. 14 of 2002). Another Vietnam War helicopter pilot, Bruce P. Crandall, was awarded the DSC in June 2001 (General Order No. 25 of 2001). This award was rescinded in November 2005 when a new citation was issued (General Order No. 9 of 2005), but the DSC itself was later upgraded to the Medal of Honor, which was presented in February 2007 (the DSC was revoked in General Order No. 3 of 2007).