Lt. Gen. WILLIAM E. KEPNER, received the Distinguished Service Cross for his extraordinary heroism when he held the rank of Captain in the 4th Infantry, 3rd Division in France, October 5th and 6th, 1918. While in command of a battalion, Captain Kepner personally led a company of his command in an attack on a woods occupied by a company of German machine gunners. He was the first man to enter the woods, and later, when part of the attacking company was held up by flanking machine-gun fire, he, with a patrol of 3 men, encircled this machine gun, and after a hard hand-to-hand fight, put the gun out of action.

General Kepner originally joined the Legion of Valor in 1929, then rejoined as a LIFE MEMBER in 1963 and resided in Florida.

His record of service indicates that he, too, was a triple-threat soldier having served with the Marines from 1909 to 1913 and with the Federalized National Guard from 1916-1917. He was appointed an Infantry Second Lieutenant in the Regular Army in 1917 and transferred to the Air Service in 1921. He was attached to the Navy from 1923 till September, 1925.