In terms of military honors, the Navy Cross (and its Army and Air Force equivalents) rank second only to the Medal of Honor as medals for valor. Since World War I, the Navy Cross – which is normally awarded to members of the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard – has been awarded only 6300 times.
“To earn a Navy Cross, the act to be commended must be performed in the presence of great danger or at great personal risk and must be performed in such a manner as to render the individual highly conspicuous among others of equal grade, rate, experience, or position of responsibility. An accumulation of minor acts of heroism does not justify an award of the Navy Cross.”
A member of the military who has received one Navy Cross (or equivalent) is considered a highly decorated soldier, but there have been two people who have won the award five times:
- Marine General Lewis “Chesty” Puller
- Naval Officer Roy Milton Davenport
There are also seven men who received four citations of the Navy Cross, all during World War II, and all possessing terrific names in addition to tremendous valor.
- Slade D. Cutter
- Samuel Dealey
- Glynn R. “Donc” Donaho
- Eugene Fluckey
- Anton Renkl Gallaher
- Harold Mazza
- Dudley “Mush” Morton
Dealey and Fluckey also won the Medal of Honor. Puller was also awarded a Distinguished Service Cross, the Army equivalent to the Navy Cross.
In keeping with this tradition, and with no disrespect meant to the Armed Forces nor the
Distinguished Accomplishments in Nomenclature Award
medals already awarded, I would like to bestow an additional award for Distinguished Nomenclature upon these nine men. Eight men for directly awesome names, and Davenport for second-order nomenclature, giving birth to two daughters who would become Delia Gruenig and Bonnie Byhre.
As citizens of a country that has preserved for us the freedom to make this blog, we thank these nine men for their service.
The Blog of Funny Names 
I’m curious as to how “Mush” Morton got his nickname!
Now that you mention it, I’m curious about the same thing. Originally I didn’t think of it because it was stuck between so many other good names it got lost in the shuffle.
Thanks for visiting my blog ohmygoache.wordpress.com. Come again!
I’ve been back a couple of times. I always love a good pun in a blog name!
Hi Sharon
Thank you for visiting my blog. Must say you got a lovely blog.All the very best
Well, I’m not Sharon, but thanks for the compliments about our blog! Despite not having a name in the title (and thus being hard to find on a search engine). This was our most popular post ever because it got a lot of links from Listverse
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This is a great idea for a blog and a very interesting one. I appreciate your taking time to check out my blog, mydaddysez. Hope to see you again.
Thanks!
What a great idea for a blog. I wish you much continued success and many years of blogging pleasure–for you and your readers.
Thank you! Likewise to you. I’m glad you appreciate our work – and “pleasure” is the right term. We basically volunteer to do this.
Hello Dave, interesting and curious Blog you have, a good one actually, it goes along with the way we express on our everyday lives, at least between people like me.
I may be wrong but I think that in many movies probably of all themes we can find those funny names you say, I say kick names; the only thing is that certainly many of them are well intentioned; others just for fun and some may be offensive.
On countries as Mexico, and to be precise Mexico City is there a Universe of kick names that usually persons will have to carry regardless they don’t want, for example:
If you work at a place “Fixing Flat Tires” they can refer to you as “El Parches” o “El Talachas”
If you work at a “Meat Market” you will be probably “EL Bofes”, referring to the lung of the Cow
If you are honest but are always ready to buy this and sell that: “El Tranzas”, honest but too smart
If they know you are thieve: “El Rata”, about Rats when take something to eat
If you wear glasses: “El Cegaton”, meaning blind
If you are good at school: “El Genio”, just someone like Einstein
That’s really interesting! I have a friend living in Mexico City right now, so I’ll have to ask her about some of these. It’s great when there are nicknames that actually describe the person.
Thanks for the comment!
What I told you it is most common usually at the “Barrios” I suppose, you know inside of Mexico City are there actually a good number of other Mexico’s
Being a Vet, this is probably an even greater story to me. Thinking about it, there are some interesting names in the military. Great job.
Thanks for the comment (and your service). Please ignore the fact that my reply is over two months late. I probably deserve a blogging demerit for that one 🙂
Hey, Dave, I love your blog. I love this idea and the fact that you do it with your buddies! My dad was in the Navy, and this is very cool to know! Thank you, and thank you for liking my Cinnamon Cereal and Yogurt post. It looks like you’re a college kid in the same area as my boy! I’ll be having some “hi-protein” 1-Minute Meals as well as gluten free, etc. So keep checking back and maybe I can keep you boys well fed!
Thanks! I’ve been missing your posts lately, but it’s only been about three weeks, so you may just be on vacation or something.
i find the services a vital force to our Nation the uncle who i am named after was U S Cavalry and chased after Pancho Villa for a short time under Pershing along the US /Mexican border
That’s a pretty awesome story. I wish I had something that cool to tell about my relatives. My uncle was in the Canadian air force as a test pilot, but that’s about it.
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Reblogged this on The Blog of Funny Names and commented:
It’s memorial day, which apparently is a BoFN Holiday, so I thought I’d share this post about some of our most legendary fallen heroes, that was once the most-visited post in the history of our blog thanks to a well-placed link on Listverse.
These nine, and all the rest.
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