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Medal of Honor Recipient

Walter Atlee Edwards

U.S. Navy · Interim 1920 - 1940

MOH-RC-001981Source-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: 1924

Portrait not yet available. Representative medal shown.

About this image

Representative form selected from the recorded presentation year (1924), 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

December 16, 1922

Sea of Marmora, Turkey

Rank at action
Lieutenant Commander
Service
U.S. Navy
Conflict
Interim 1920 - 1940
Unit or command
U.S.S. Bainbridge
Presentation date
February 4, 1924

The Citation

Sources ↓
For heroism in rescuing 482 men, women and children from the French military transport Vinh-Long, destroyed by fire in the Sea of Marmora, Turkey, on 16 December 1922. Lt. Comdr. Edwards, commanding the U.S.S. Bainbridge, placed his vessel alongside the bow of the transport and, in spite of several violent explosions which occurred on the burning vessel, maintained his ship in that position until all who were alive were taken on board. Of a total of 495 on board, 482 were rescued by his coolness, judgment and professional skill, which were combined with a degree of heroism that must reflect new glory on the U.S. Navy.

Sources & record notes

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

  1. Walter Atlee Edwards — 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-001991
Transcription status
Legacy full text · current reference profile matched
Last source check
2026-08-30
Recorded order reference (not verified against the original)
123
Accredited to
Pennsylvania
Archive transcription SHA-256
cd98e7d03b815d2b2814efc73320a4ae075c9279a0604ad83b38c6120ca806f7

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

The current source records U.S.S. Bainbridge; the inherited unit field Not documented remains preserved as a source variant. The current historical action-place wording replaces only the controlled canonical geocoder field; the complete inherited place remains preserved. The current authoritative profile classifies the action under Interim 1920 - 1940; the inherited Not yet classified value remains preserved in the audit record.

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