Distinguished Service Cross, 1 olc (Gerry H. Kisters)

Distinguished Service Cross, with one oak leaf cluster, machine-engraved “Gerry H./Kisters”, on a Robbins black brooch. In a black leatherette case with ribbon bar and lapel pin.

Staff Sergeant Gerry H. Kisters earned the Distinguished Service Cross “for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy while serving with Company B, 91st Reconnaissance Squadron, 2nd Armored Division. On ** May 1943, near ***, Tunisia, Staff Sergeant Kisters made several individual reconnaissance missions, returning each time with timely and valuable information concerning location of artillery emplacements, Alone, and while subjected to enemy heavy artillery and concentrated machine gun fire, and individual rifle fire, staff Sergeant Kisters crept forward on an artillery piece which was firing on our forces near ***. By the effective se of his hand grenades and rifle, Staff Sergeant Kisters wiped out the entire crew…”

In July 1943, Second Lieutenant Kisters earned the Medal of Honor “while serving with Company B, 91st Reconnaissance Squadron, attached to the 1st Infantry Division. On 31 July 1943, near Gagliano, Sicily, a detachment of one officer and nine enlisted men, including Sergeant Kisters, advancing ahead of the leading elements of US troops to fill a large crater in the only available vehicle route through Gagliano, was taken under fire by two enemy machine guns. Sergeant Kisters and the officer, unaided and in the face of intense small arms fire, advanced to the nearest machinegun emplacement and succeeded in capturing the gun and its crew of four. Although the greater part of the remaining small arms fire was now directed on the captured machinegun position, Sergeant Kisters voluntarily advanced alone toward the second gun emplacement. While creeping forward, he was struck five times by enemy bullets, receiving wounds in both legs and his right arm. Despite the wounds, he continued to advance on the enemy, and captured the second machinegun after killing three of its crew and forcing the fourth member to flee…”

Kisters’ first DSC, which was on a wrap brooch, was sold at auction in 2009. This piece may represent an interim award made to Kisters while his Medal of Honor recommendation was being considered. Kisters died in 1986 and is buried in Bloomington, Indiana. He was the first man in World War II to earn both the DSC and Medal of Honor.