Curated playlist
Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (US Army)
- Winston ChurchillWinston Churchill escaped a prisoner-of-war camp in Pretoria by hiding on freight trains. It made him famous.
- Colin PowellOn the 5th of February 2003, Colin Powell addressed the United Nations Security Council. He told the council: "there can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more." The…
- Dwight D. EisenhowerEisenhower wrote a note taking all blame if D-Day failed. He drafted it on the eve of the June 1944 landings.
- Bernard MontgomeryBernard Law Montgomery lay in an open field at Méteren on the 13th of October 1914, shot through the right lung by a sniper. The village sits near the Belgian border at Bailleul. Montgomery was a young officer of the Royal Warwickshire…
- George S. PattonA reporter once heard George S. Patton say that winning in combat took "blood and brains." The reporter began calling him "blood and guts," and the nickname followed Patton for the rest of his life. Soldiers under his command sometimes…
- Douglas MacArthurDouglas MacArthur came up with his own field marshal title. Philippine President Quezon conferred it in 1936.
- James F. ByrnesJames F. Byrnes left school at 14 and later sat on the U.S. Supreme Court. He never earned a law degree.
- Walter Bedell SmithWalter Bedell Smith signed Italy's armistice under an olive tree in Sicily. It was September 3, 1943.
- Lord MountbattenLord Mountbatten sat alone in his study at the Viceroy's House as midnight arrived on the 15th of August 1947. India and Pakistan were becoming independent nations, and he reflected that for a few minutes more he remained the most powerful…
- Bernard BaruchBernard Baruch refused a 1929 pool to prop up the falling stock market. He had already moved into bonds, cash and gold.