Medal of Honor
1918-09-25
near Billy, France
- Rank at action
- First Lieutenant
- Service
- U.S. Army Air Service
- Conflict
- World War I
- Unit or command
- 94th Aero Squadron, Air Service
- Presentation date
- December 31, 1931
The Citation
Sources ↓For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy near Billy, France, 25 September 1918. While on a voluntary patrol over the lines, 1st Lt. Rickenbacker attacked seven enemy planes (five type Fokker, protecting two type Halberstadt). Disregarding the odds against him, he dived on them and shot down one of the Fokkers out of control. He then attacked one of the Halberstadts and sent it down also.
Sources & record notes
General Order comparison: pending. Current-profile review does not mean that the underlying original order has been examined.
- Edward Vernon Rickenbacker — current citation source ↗Congressional Medal of Honor Society · Checked 2026-08-22
current identity, action metadata, and full citation transcription
Transcription, metadata & provenance notes
- Award ID
- MOH-AW-000068
- Transcription status
- Current-source full text
- Last source check
- 2026-08-22
- Recorded order reference (not verified against the original)
- 2
- Entered service at
- Columbus, Ohio
- Accredited to
- Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio
- Archive transcription SHA-256
- 0fb7b426950022fdb1e9c5f0aca0052cf1701f70daea5a9c570b54ce96c5997b
current_profile_transcription_with_whitespace_and_display_punctuation_normalized
Expanded the canonical name, corrected the service to U.S. Army Air Service, completed the unit, and standardized the action place.