FIRST LIEUTENANT GRANT MAHONY. On December 20th the Distinguished Service Cross was awarded to First Lieutenant Grant Mahony for extra ordinary heroism in action in which he displayed exceptional courage. General MacArthur’s offical report on Lieutenat Mahony is as follows:

Volunteered for a vital night mission in thick weather during a complete ground blackout. In the face of severed ground fire from strongly held positions, he secured information needed for a subsequently successful bombing attack on December 10th. On the following day, returning form a bombing mission near Legaspi in which he destroyed an enemy flying boat and strafed an enemy-held radio station, this pilot displayed exceptional courage in performing the highly dangerous feat of landing his plane with bombs hanging from an improperly functioning bomb release, in preference to bailing out. Again the following week, Lieutenant Mahony was flying over Legaspi at 13,000 feet when he encountered two Japanese pursuit planes. Suddenly his guns jammed, so he dived low with the Japanese on his tail. He realized he was helpless in the face of heavy machine gun fire, but observed that the Japanese were missing his plane and strafing their own troops. Lieutenant Mahony put his ship into a short climb, then drew the Japanese ships behind him again. This time he swooped right over the enemy ground troops and once more the enemy poured machine gun fire into their own men.

1LT Mahoney was the first member accepted into the Legion of Valor from World War II in the 1940’s.