Recipients of the Legion of Merit

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.

Harry Max Darmstandler (August 9, 1922 – February 21, 2012) was an American Air Force major general who was special assistant to the chief of staff for B-1 Matters, Headquarters, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. In this capacity, he coordinated Air Force activities related to the B-1 bomber.
Darmstandler was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1922, where he graduated from Arsenal Technical High School in 1940. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in military science from the University of Omaha, in 1964, and a Master of Science degree in international relations from The George Washington University, in 1965.
He entered the aviation cadet program in Santa Ana, California, in May 1942 and graduated at Luke Air Field, Arizona, as a pilot and second lieutenant in February 1943.
During World War II, Darmstandler served as an instructor pilot in the Air Training Command, and later as aircraft commander of a B-24 crew assigned to the 456th Bombardment Group in Italy. He flew 21 combat missions and remained in Italy after V-E Day through July 1945, flying gasoline and oil into Trieste. In September 1945 he separated from active duty, retaining a commission in the Army Air Corps Reserve.
In November 1948 Darmstandler returned to active duty to participate in the Berlin airlift. Assigned to the 29th Troop Carrier Squadron, he completed nearly 200 missions before returning to the United States in July 1949 to join the Air Proving Ground Command at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. He then became a B-17 "director pilot" for Operation GREENHOUSE nuclear tests conducted at Eniwetok Atoll in early 1951. Following the test series, he joined the 61st Troop Carrier Group in Japan where he flew combat cargo missions in support of military operations in Korea. In November 1952 the 61st Group returned to the United States and transitioned into C-124 Globemaster aircraft with Darmstandler as the group chief pilot.
In February 1954 Darmstandler moved to Donaldson Air Force Base, South Carolina, where he served as operations and training inspector under the inspector general, Eighteenth Air Force. During the winter of 1955–1956, he staged at Frobisher Bay, flying into ice air strips on frozen lakes in Northern Canada in support of the installation of the Defense Early Warning (DEW) Line. In the academic year of 1955–1956, he attended Command and Staff School at the Naval War College, Newport, R.I. He then returned to the 61st Troop Carrier Group to command a rotational detachment of C-124 aircraft at Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany. During this tour of duty, he led the air evacuation of American nationals from Tel Aviv at the outbreak of the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1956, and participated in the airlift of the United Nations security forces from the Scandinavian countries to the Suez.
In July 1957 Darmstandler was assigned as aide and flag pilot to the commandant, Armed Forces Staff College, Norfolk, Virginia. In September 1960 he joined the staff of the commander in chief, Pacific, for a three-year tour. He next attended the University of Omaha under Operation BOOTSTRAP, and in August 1964 entered the National War College, during which time he also obtained a master's degree at The George Washington University.
In July 1965 Darmstandler was assigned to the Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, serving initially in the North American Division and later in the Current Operations Branch of the Pacific Division. During this period, he served on temporary duty in the Republic of Vietnam, visiting all of the major Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps units in-country while analyzing the system for close air support.
In August 1968 Darmstandler was chosen to be a research fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles. In July 1969 he was assigned to Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe as special assistant to the chief of staff and in June 1970 became executive to the chief of staff. In February 1972 he was assigned as commander, 12th Strategic Air Division, SAC, at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona.
Darmstandler was reassigned as the assistant deputy chief of staff for plans, Strategic Air Command at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, in March 1973, and became the deputy chief of staff for plans in September 1973. In this position, he directed the formulation and development of plans, policies, programs and requirements for SAC. He also served as the commander in chief, SAC, representative to the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Darmstandler assumed the position as special assistant to the chief of staff for B-1 Matters, U.S. Air Force, in July 1974.
His military decorations and awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster, Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with two oak leaf clusters, Army Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster, Air Force Outstanding Unit Award Ribbon, and the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon. He wears the Missileman Badge and is a command pilot with more than 7,000 flying hours.
He was promoted to the grade of major general effective September 1, 1973, with date of rank February 1, 1971. He retired September 1, 1975.
Darmstandler died in 2012. He was 89.

Colonel James Helms Kasler (May 2, 1926 – April 24, 2014) was a senior officer in the United States Air Force and the only person to be awarded the Air Force Cross three times. The Air Force Cross ranks just below the Medal of Honor as an award for extraordinary heroism in combat.
Kasler was a combat veteran of World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. In Korea, as an F-86 Sabre pilot with the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, he was recognized as an ace, credited with shooting down 6 MiG-15s. Kasler flew a combined 198 combat missions and was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam from August 1966 until March 1973.
He flew a total of 101 combat missions in an F-86E Sabre and scored 6 confirmed air-to-air victories and two more damaged against MiG-15s, becoming among the first jet aces of the Korean War.

Clarence Reuben Autery (1933–2010) was a major general in the United States Air Force. In 1979, he appeared in the docudrama First Strike, scenes of which were later edited into the television film The Day After. In both films, Autery is portrayed as a SAC commander who is airborne on a command plane during a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. He was also interviewed about his role at SAC in Part One of the 1981 CBS News documentary series "The Defense Of The United States," which also used some of the "First Strike" footage.

Donald Worthington Reynolds (September 23, 1906 – April 2, 1993) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was the founder of Donrey Media Group, a communications company with newspaper, broadcasting and cable television holdings, and outdoor advertising.

Jerome LaMarr Johnson (born September 21, 1935) is a retired four-star admiral of the United States Navy who commanded the United States Second Fleet, Joint Task Force 120, and NATO's Striking Fleet Atlantic from 1988 to 1990. He served as Vice Chief of Naval Operations from 1990 to 1992.
Johnson has endorsed the false conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was rigged to favor Joe Biden and claims that the United States "has taken a hard left turn toward Socialism and a Marxist form of tyrannical government."

Colonel Virgil Rasmuss Miller (November 11, 1900 – August 5, 1968) was a United States Army officer who served as Regimental Commander of the 442d Regimental Combat Team (RCT), a unit which was composed of "Nisei" (second generation Americans of Japanese descent), during World War II. He led the 442nd in its rescue of the Lost Texas Battalion of the 36th Infantry Division, in the forests of the Vosges Mountains in northeastern France.

Brigadier General Salvador Teodoro Roig Marietti, (November 9, 1907 – July 6, 1984), was the Superintendent of the Puerto Rico Police Department under the Government of Luis Muñoz Marín, and Adjutant General of the National Guard under the Government of Roberto Sánchez Vilella.
Roig was appointed Chief of police of Puerto Rico for a second time in 1963, and he was subsequently appointed to the position of Adjutant General of the Puerto Rico National Guard. Among his accomplishments as a public servant stands have occupied the positions of Chief of Police of Puerto Rico, Military Assistant and Chief of Protocol of La Fortaleza (The Fortress) under the Government of Jesús T. Piñero. He was also exalted in the Puerto Rican Sports Hall of Fame for his exploits in the sport of archery target.

Major General Salvador Enrique Felices (August 13, 1923 – July 14, 1987) was the first Puerto Rican to reach the rank of major general in the United States Air Force. In 1957, he participated in "Operation Power Flite", the first round-the-world nonstop flight by a jet airplane.

Lafayette Green Pool (July 23, 1919 – May 30, 1991) was an American tank-crew and tank-platoon commander in World War II and is widely recognized as the US tank ace of aces, credited with 12 confirmed tank kills and 258 total armored vehicle and self-propelled gun kills, over 1,000 German soldiers killed and 250 more taken as prisoners of war, accomplished in only 81 days of action from June 27 to September 19, 1944, using three different Shermans. He received many medals and decorations, including the Distinguished Service Cross, the Legion of Merit, the Silver Star, the Purple Heart, the Belgian fourragère, and the French Legion of Honour.