After serving in both World War I and World War II, Orlen Thompson retired in 1946 as a U.S. Army Brigadier General.
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After serving in both World War I and World War II, Orlen Thompson retired in 1946 as a U.S. Army Brigadier General.
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The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to First Lieutenant (Infantry) Orlen Nelson Thompson, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with 305th Infantry Regiment, 77th Division, American Expeditionary Forces, near the Argonne Forest, France, 26 September 1918. In the course of a successful advance, in which ten of the enemy had been captured, Lieutenant Thompson was severely wounded in the head by a shell fragment, but, after regaining consciousness, he refused assistance and carefully transmitted all orders and information to the second-in-command. Though he was weak from loss of blood, he went to the rear unaided, taking with him ten prisoners.