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Medal of Honor Recipient

Ora Graves

U.S. Navy · World War I

MOH-RC-002360Source-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 HonorRecorded presentation: 1918

Portrait not yet available. Representative medal shown.

About this image

Representative form selected from the recorded presentation year (1918), not authenticated medal-object provenance. 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

July 23, 1917

at Sea aboard the U.S.S. Pittsburgh

Rank at action
Seaman
Service
U.S. Navy
Conflict
World War I
Unit or command
U.S.S. Pittsburgh
Presentation date
December 31, 1918

The Citation

Sources ↓
For extraordinary heroism on 23 July 1917, while the U.S.S. Pittsburgh was proceeding to Buenos Aires, Argentina. A 3-inch saluting charge exploded, causing the death of C. T. Lyles, seaman. Upon the explosion, Graves was blown to the deck, but soon recovered and discovered burning waste on the deck. He put out the burning waste while the casemate was filled with clouds of smoke, knowing that there was more powder there which might explode.
Separately preserved current-source wording

Captured from the linked current recipient source; it is not a new comparison with an original General Order.

For extraordinary heroism on 23 July 1917, while the U.S.S. Pittsburgh was proceeding to Buenos Aires, Argentina. A 3-inch saluting charge exploded, causing the death of C.T. Lyles, seaman. Upon the explosion, Graves was blown to the deck, but soon recovered and discovered burning waste on the deck. He put out the burning waste while the casemate was filled with clouds of smoke, knowing that there was more powder there which might explode.

Sources & record notes

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

  1. Ora Graves — current Society profile ↗Congressional Medal of Honor Society · Checked 2026-08-30

    current identity, service, action metadata, and citation comparison

Transcription, metadata & provenance notes
Award ID
MOH-AW-002371
Transcription status
Legacy full text · current reference profile matched
Last source check
2026-08-30
Recorded order reference (not verified against the original)
366
Accredited to
Nebraska
Archive transcription SHA-256
573a29fade62118764f841a650313d26dc1d0f59479b4c177a821846952fce82

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

The inherited rank-1 Society candidate was confirmed by substantive comparison of identity, service, rank, unit or command, action context, and citation; candidate rank or successful rendering alone was not treated as verification. The controlled canonical unit or command is U.S.S. Pittsburgh; the current structured profile renders U.S.S. Pittsburgh, and the inherited wording Not documented remains preserved as a separately attributed variant. The current authoritative evidence controls the action date as 1917-07-23 and classifies the action under World War I; the inherited unnormalized date and conflict values remain preserved in the audit record. The controlled historical action place is at Sea aboard the U.S.S. Pittsburgh; the current structured place at Sea aboard the U.S.S. Pittsburgh and the complete inherited geocoder value Buenos Aires, Argentina remain preserved in the audit evidence. The Society archive note distinguishes the recipient born in Colorado in 1896, service number 1616680, from another World War I sailor named Ora Graves; that disambiguation is retained as identity evidence and no merge is performed. The inherited full citation remains canonical and checksum-protected; current rendered wording is preserved separately where transcribed. No underlying General Order was examined, so the exact-order gate remains pending and no General Order verification is claimed.

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