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Medal of Honor Recipient

Franklin van Valkenburgh

U.S. Navy · World War II

MOH-RC-003040Source-based record

The award

Representative medal image: Navy star design with the 1913 blue ribbon. Not a portrait or a photograph of this recipient’s own medal.
Navy Medal of HonorAction-era reference: 1941

Portrait not yet available. Representative medal shown.

About this image

Presentation date is not usable for design selection. This is an action-era reference; a later presentation or replacement medal may differ. The Navy used more than one design in this period. No Tiffany Cross attribution is inferred from service or conflict alone.

Medal imagery and historical designs →

Medal of Honor

1941-12-07

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, USA

Rank at action
Captain
Service
U.S. Navy
Conflict
World War II
Unit or command
U.S.S. Arizona

The Citation

Sources ↓
For conspicuous devotion to duty, extraordinary courage and complete disregard of his own life, during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor T.H., by Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. As commanding officer of the U.S.S. Arizona, Capt. Van Valkenburgh gallantly fought his ship until the U.S.S. Arizona blew up from magazine explosions and a direct bomb hit on the bridge which resulted in the loss of his life.

Sources & record notes

General Order comparison: pending. Current-profile review does not mean that the underlying original order has been examined.

  1. Franklin van Valkenburgh — Congressional Medal of Honor Society recipient profile ↗Congressional Medal of Honor Society · Checked 2026-09-01

    current identity, service, action metadata, and citation comparison

Transcription, metadata & provenance notes
Award ID
MOH-AW-003055
Transcription status
Legacy full text · current reference profile matched
Last source check
2026-09-01
Accredited to
Wisconsin
Archive transcription SHA-256
acddbcee71820cda1d51529145a54b5ac0d589687abcbc6f1d550a76cdf82cca

Legacy transcription retained without substantive editing; rendered current reference profile comparison is documented in the Phase 10 evidence snapshot.

The current official profile is inherited candidate rank two and renders the surname particle in lowercase. The legacy capitalization and all inherited candidate evidence remain preserved.

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