Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (US Army)

Harold Robert Aaron (June 21, 1921 – April 30, 1980) was a lieutenant general in the United States Army.

George Vernon Underwood Jr. (December 17, 1913 – August 3, 1984) was a United States Army four-star general who served as Commander in Chief, United States Southern Command (USCINCSO) from 1971 to 1973. He graduated from Shortridge High School in Indianapolis in 1931 and attended Wabash College in Crawfordsville for two years. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1937 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Coast Artillery Corps.
Prior to World War II, he served as a battery grade officer with artillery units at Fort Scott in San Francisco, at Fort Kamahameha in the Territory of Hawaii, and at Fort Rodman in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
He attended the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1941. After serving as operations and training officer of the Harbor Defenses of Narragansett Bay, Fort Adams, Rhode Island, General Underwood was selected to attend the Task Force Staff Officers' Course conducted by the Operations Division of the War Department General Staff.
Upon completing this course, he was retained in the Operations Division where he served until 1945. In August, 1945, he was assigned to Headquarters, China Theater, where he served as Assistant Chief of Staff, G-5, (Civil Affairs), then as Chief of the Control Section of the Office of the Chief of Staff, and finally as Chief of the Plans Division.
In June 1946, General Underwood was sent to Washington, D.C., to serve as Assistant to the Special Representative of General George C. Marshall, who was then the Presidential Envoy to China. General Underwood returned to China in October, 1946, as Executive Officer to General Marshall. Upon his return from China in May 1947, he was assigned to the Plans and Operations Division, War Department General Staff.
General Underwood graduated from the Armed Forces Staff College in July 1949. He then commanded the 867th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion in Alaska until May 1951. From May 1951 until March 1953, he served as Deputy Director and then Director of the Executive Offices of the Secretary of Defense in Washington, D.C.
General Underwood graduated from the U.S. Army War College in 1954 and remained as a member of the faculty until 1957. As Commanding Officer, 2d Artillery Group, he commanded the Nike Defense of the Niagara-Buffalo Area from August 1957 until December 1958.
After eighteen months of study at University of Wisconsin–Madison, he received a Master of Arts in Journalism in 1960. He joined the Office of the Chief of Information, Department of the Army, in July 1960 and served as Assistant Chief of Information until January 1961. He was designated Deputy Chief of Information in January 1961 and Chief of Information in February 1963. He became a Major General on July 24, 1963.
In February, 1966, General Underwood was assigned as the Commanding General, 32d Artillery Brigade, in Kaiserslautern, Germany. On May 11, 1966, the 32d Artillery Brigade was redesignated the 32d Army Air Defense Command (AADC). Underwood was commander of Fort Bliss from 1967 to 1968 and later was commander, Aerospace Defense Command and commander, Fifth United States Army. He commanded the Southern Command from 1971 until retiring in 1973.
General Underwood received the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army Commendation Ribbon with One Oak Leaf Cluster, and the Special Breast Order of Yun Hui (Chinese).
He married Mary Heistand Underwood (née Scott) on June 16, 1948 and had three children: Scotty, Molly and Mary Kate.

Richard Condie Sanders (August 19, 1915 – September 20, 1976) was the youngest general officer in the history of the United States Air Force. Born in 1915, in Salt Lake City, Utah, he graduated from the University of Utah in 1937, with a Bachelor of Science degree, and was appointed a second lieutenant, Field Artillery Reserve on September 4, 1936, while still in college. He served on extended active duty from July 28, 1937, to June 30, 1938, and from July 5, 1938, to September 30, 1938. He then enlisted as a flying cadet on October 4, 1938, and, on completion of his training, was commissioned a second lieutenant, Air Reserve, on August 25, 1939. He was called to active duty the next day and was commissioned a second lieutenant, Air Corps, Regular Army, on July 1, 1940.

Richard Edward Cavazos (January 31, 1929 – October 29, 2017) was a United States Army 4-star general. He was a Korean War recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross as a first lieutenant and advanced in rank to become the United States Army's first Hispanic four-star general. During the Vietnam War, as a lieutenant colonel, Cavazos was awarded a second Distinguished Service Cross. In 1976, Cavazos became the first Mexican-American to reach the rank of brigadier general in the United States Army. Cavazos served for 33 years, with his final command as head of the United States Army Forces Command. On May 25, 2022, The Naming Commission recommended that Fort Hood be renamed to Fort Cavazos, in recognition of Gen. Cavazos' military service. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the renaming on October 6, 2022. The re-designation as Fort Cavazos occurred on May 9, 2023.

Lieutenant General Richard Joe Seitz (February 18, 1918 – June 8, 2013) was a United States Army officer and paratrooper who, during a 35-year career, commanded the 2nd Battalion, 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment during World War II, the 82nd Airborne Division and the XVIII Airborne Corps.

Major General Kenneth Joe Hodson, USA (April 27, 1913 – November 11, 1995) was an American military lawyer who served as the 27th Judge Advocate General of the United States Army from 1967 to 1971.

John Reiley Guthrie (December 20, 1921 – May 25, 2009) was a United States Army four-star general who served as commanding general, United States Army Development and Research Command (DARCOM) from 1977 to 1981. In the 1980s, DARCOM was renamed United States Army Materiel Command.

William C. Gribble Jr. (born May 24, 1917 in Ironwood, Michigan – June 2, 1979) graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1941 and was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers.
During World War II, he served on the staff of the 340th Engineer General Service Regiment as it first built a section of the Alaska Highway in western Canada and later assisted MacArthur's drive in New Guinea and the Philippines. At the end of the war he commanded the 118th Engineer Combat Battalion, U.S. 43d Infantry Division.
Gribble then worked in the Los Alamos laboratory and in the Reactor Development Division of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. As Alaska District Engineer he oversaw construction of a nuclear power plant at Fort Greely, Alaska. He headed the Army's nuclear power program in 1960-61. In 1963 he was the Corps' North Central Division Engineer. Gribble's scientific skills led to his service as Director of Research and Development in the U.S. Army Materiel Command in 1964-66 and as the Army's Chief of Research and Development in 1971-73. In 1969-70 he commanded the Army Engineer Center and Fort Belvoir and was Commandant of the Army Engineer School. He became Chief of Engineers in 1973, and retired in 1976.
Gribble received a master's degree in physical science from the University of Chicago in 1948 and an honorary doctorate in engineering from Michigan Technological University. He was also an honorary member of the United Kingdom's Institute of Royal Engineers. His decorations included the Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster and the Brazilian Order of Military Merit. General Gribble died at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, on June 2, 1979. He is interred in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

Lieutenant General Eugene Priest Forrester (April 17, 1926 – July 25, 2012) was a senior officer in the United States Army. He served as commander of United States Army Western Command from 1981 until his retirement in 1983.

John Russell Deane Jr. (June 8, 1919 – July 18, 2013) was a highly decorated United States Army officer who rose to the rank of general and served as commander of the United States Army Materiel Command.