Navy Cross
| Navy Cross | |
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| Awarded by Department of the Navy | |
| Type | Medal |
| Awarded for | Extreme gallantry and risk of life in actual combat with an armed enemy force and going beyond the call of duty. |
| Status | Currently awarded |
| Statistics | |
| First awarded | 1917 |
| Precedence | |
| Next (higher) | Medal of Honor |
| Same | Army - Distinguished Service Cross Navy - Navy Cross Air Force - Air Force Cross |
| Next (lower) | Distinguished Service Medals: Defense, Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard |
 Navy Cross ribbon |
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The Navy Cross is the highest medal that can be awarded by the Department of the Navy and the second highest award given for valor. It is normally only awarded to members of the United States Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard but could be awarded to all branches of United States military as well as members of foreign militaries. It was established by Act of Congress (Pub.L. 65-253) and approved on February 4, 1919. The Navy Cross is equivalent to the Distinguished Service Cross (Army) and the Air Force Cross.
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The Navy Cross has been in effect since April 6, 1917.
The Navy Cross may be awarded to any member of the armed forces while serving with the Marine Corps, Navy, or Coast Guard (in time of war only) who distinguishes himself in action by extraordinary heroism not justifying an award of the Medal of Honor. The action must take place under one of three circumstances:
1. While engaged in action against an enemy of the United States
2. While engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force
3. While serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict in which the United States is not a belligerent party.
To earn a Navy Cross the act to be commended must be performed in the presence of great danger or at great personal risk and must be performed in such a manner as to render the individual highly conspicuous among others of equal grade, rate, experience, or position of responsibility. An accumulation of minor acts of heroism does not justify an award of the Navy Cross. As originally authorized, the Navy Cross could be awarded for distinguished non-combat acts, but legislation of August 7, 1942 limited the award to acts of combat heroism.
Originally the Navy Cross was the Navy's third-highest decoration, after the Medal of Honor and the Navy Distinguished Service Medal. In August 1942 Congress revised the precedence, making the Navy Cross senior to the Distinguished Service Medal. Since that time the Navy Cross has been worn after the Medal of Honor and before all other decorations.
Additional awards of the Navy Cross are denoted by gold stars five-sixteenths of an inch in diameter affixed to the ribbon.
The Navy Cross was designed by James Earl Fraser (1876-1953).
The first actual recipient of the Navy Cross is unknown because initial awards were made from a lengthy list published after the First World War.
The Navy Cross was most recently awarded posthumously to Marine Corps Lance Corporal Christopher S. Adlesperger of Albuquerque, New Mexico on April 13, 2007 for his actions during an insurgent battle in Fallujah in late 2004. One month later, Adlesperger was fatally shot while on patrol in Al-Anbar province, west of Baghdad.[1]
The Navy Cross is a modified cross pattée one and a half inches wide (the ends of its arms are rounded whereas a conventional cross patée has arms that are straight on the end). There are four laurel leaves with berries in each of the re-entrant arms of the cross. In the center of the cross a sailing vessel is depicted on waves, sailing to the viewer's left. The vessel is a symbolic caravel of the type used between 1480 and 1500. Fraser selected the caravel because it was a symbol often used by the Naval Academy and because it represented both naval service and the tradition of the sea. The laurel leaves with berries refer to achievement.
In the center of a bronze cross patée one and a half inches wide, crossed anchors from the pre-1850 period, with cables attached. The letters USN appear amid the anchors.
The ribbon is navy blue with a center stripe of white. The blue alludes to naval service and the white represents the purity of selflessness.
- See also: Category:Navy Cross recipients
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The Secretary of the Navy has only occasional opportunities to confirm that the Navy Cross has been awarded to a non-American recipient. Slightly more than 100 such honors have been extended to men who were not citizens of the United States.
- Gordon Bridson, New Zealand (1943).[1]
- Ernesto Burzagli, Italy (1919).
- Harold Farncomb, Australia (1945).[2]
- Peter Phipps, New Zealand (1943).[3]
- Ronald Niel Stuart, United Kingdom (1917).[4]
- ^ Dictionary of New Zealand Biography: Bridson bio notes
- ^ Australian Dictionary of Biography: Farncomb bio notes
- ^ Royal New Zealand Navy: Phipps bio notes
- ^ Snelling, Stephen. (2002). The Naval VCs, p. 142.
- "Navy Cross". Service Medals and Campaign Credits of the United States. United States Navy. Retrieved on 2007-07-10.
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