The Vietnam Navy Gallantry Cross was a military decoration of South Vietnam which was issued during the years of the Vietnam War. The Navy Gallantry Cross was awarded to any member of the military who displayed meritorious or heroic combat while engaged in naval operations to benefit South Vietnam. The medal was awarded both for combat and non-combat service and was the equivalent of the United States Legion of Merit.
The Navy Gallantry Cross was also awarded to members of foreign military forces, provided that such service members were engaged in direct operational support of Vietnam and that such naval actions benefitted the Vietnamese military. Officers of the United States Navy were frequently awarded the Navy Gallantry Cross.
Similar decorations existed for general service and air service, and were known as the Vietnam Gallantry Cross and Vietnam Air Gallantry Cross. These were separate decorations from the Vietnam Navy Gallantry Cross which came in four different grades: with gold anchor, silver anchor, bronze anchor, and no anchor.
Famous quotes containing the words navy, gallantry and/or cross:
“I wish to reiterate all the reasons which [my predecessor] has presented in favor of the policy of maintaining a strong navy as the best conservator of our peace with other nations and the best means of securing respect for the assertion of our rights of the defense of our interests, and the exercise of our influence in international matters.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“Marriage is like a war. There are moments of chivalry and gallantry that attend the victorious advances and strategic retreats, the birth or death of children, the momentary conquest of loneliness, the sacrifice that ennobles him who makes it. But mostly there are the long dull sieges, the waiting, the terror and boredom. Women understand this better than men; they are better able to survive attrition.”
—Helen Hayes (1900–1993)
“I know we’re not saints or virgins or lunatics; we know all the lust and lavatory jokes, and most of the dirty people; we can catch buses and count our change and cross the roads and talk real sentences. But our innocence goes awfully deep, and our discreditable secret is that we don’t know anything at all, and our horrid inner secret is that we don’t care that we don’t.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)