Citation:

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Chester A. Davis, Major, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Hattonville, France, in the St. Mihiel salient, September 12 - 13, 1918.

Sent by his brigade commander to verify the positions of the first lines of the assaulting battalions, Major Davis continued forward to ascertain the approximate location of the enemy lines. Accompanied by only two others, he overtook a hostile formation of about 60 men, wagons, animals, and machine-guns, which formed a rear guard to facilitate the retreat of the enemy convoys, and by the exercise of rare gallantry and judgment, captured this entire enemy force, despite its overwhelming superiority in numbers and strength.

Citation:

The Navy Cross is presented to Chester A. Davis, Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps, for distinguished service in the line of his profession during continuous active service with the Guardia Nacional of the Republic of Nicaragua of the Republic of Nicaragua and Eleventh Regiment, U.S. Marine Corps in the Northern Area of Nicaragua between 28 March 1928 and 30 June 1929.

Sergeant Davis participated in and distinguished himself by his gallantry on many combined Marine and Guardia patrols. Later, while in command of a unit of Guardia troops at San Juan de Telpaneca which was a heavily bandit infested coffee section, he so vigorously carried on active operations against bandits as to enable the peaceful inhabitants to harvest their coffee crop and market it without being molested. During this period he was ambushed by a vastly superior force of bandits. By a display of extraordinary courage and remarkable qualities of leadership he successfully led his troops in an assault on the bandit position, defeating and routing them.

ARLINGTON, Virginia, January 26, 1965 – Lieutenant Colonel Chester A. Davis, retired, a veteran of the Army and the Marine Corps, was buried with military honors yesterday in Arlington National Cemetery.  He died in McConnelsburg, Pennsylvania, of arteriosclerosis at the age of 78.

In World War I, he went to France and received the Distinguished Service Cross for single-handedly capturing 24 German soldiers in the Saint Mihiel engagement.

On his return he taught military science at Indiana University.  Later at the request of Major General Leonard Wood, then Governor General of the Philippines, he organized a Filipino officers’ training corps.

In 1927, Colonel Davis resigned his Army commission and joined the Marines as a Private to go into action in Nicaragua.  He helped set up the Guardia Nacional there.  While on loan to the guard from the Marine Corps in 1929 he earned the Navy Cross for defeating a force of bandits in a remote province.