page_title: Christian F. Schilt
section_title: Military career
hierarchical_section_title: Christian F. Schilt / Military career
caption_attribution_description: English: U.S. President Calvin Coolidge and First Lieutenant Christian F. Schilt, USMC: At the White House on the occasion of the presentation of the Medal of Honor to First Lieutenant Schilt, circa 1928.
context_page_description: Christian Frank Schilt was one of the first Marine Corps aviators and a recipient of the United States highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor. He received the Medal for using his biplane to evacuate wounded Marines under fire in Nicaragua.
  In addition to his actions in Nicaragua he saw action in World War I, the Haitian and Nicaraguan campaigns, World War II and the Korean War. He retired after nearly 40 years of active service and was promoted to the rank of four-star general at retirement.
context_section_description: As an enlisted man he served at Ponta Delgada, in the Azores, with the 1st Marine Aeronautical Company, a seaplane squadron assigned to anti-submarine patrol. This was the first organized American air unit of any service to go overseas during World War I.
  Returning to the United States as a corporal, he entered flight training at the Marine Flying Field, Miami, Florida. He was designated an aviator June 5, 1919, and commissioned a second lieutenant five days later. That October, he began his first tour of expeditionary duty as a member of Squadron "D," Marine Air Forces, 2nd Provisional Brigade, in Santo Domingo. He returned to the United States in February 1920, to enter the Marine Officers Training School, Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia.
  Completing the course in August 1920, he went overseas again the following month, joining squadron "E" of the 1st Provisional Brigade, at Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He was transferred to the 2d Brigade the following March to make an aerial survey and mosaic map of the coast line of the Dominican Republic. After completing that assignment he returned to Quantico in October 1922.
  Except for service at Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida, from January to July 1923, and completion of a three-month photographic course at the Air Service Technical School, Chanute Field, Illinois, in 1925, Schilt remained at Quantico for the next five years. While attached to that post, he won second place in the Schneider International Seaplane Race at Norfolk, in November 1926, flying a special Curtiss racer at a speed of 231.3 mph (372.2 km/h) over seven laps of a triangular 50 km course.
  In November 1927, Schilt was ordered to Managua, Nicaragua, where he joined Observation Squadron 7-M.
  He was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism from 6 to January 8, 1928, at Quilali, Nicaragua, where two Marine patrols were ambushed and cut off by Sandino forces. Then a lieutenant, he voluntarily risked his life to make ten flights into the besieged town, evacuating 18 casualties and carrying in a replacement commander and badly needed medical supplies. To make a landing strip on the village's rough, rolling, main street, the Marines on the ground had to burn and level part of the town, and since his O2U Corsair biplane had no brakes they had to stop it by dragging from its wings as soon as it touched down.
  Hostile fire on landings and take-offs, plus low-hanging clouds, mountains and tricky air currents, added to the difficulty of the flights, which the citation describes as feats of "almost superhuman skill combined with personal courage of the highest order."
  He returned to the United States in August 1929, and after commanding Fighter Squadron 5-N at Quantico, was named Chief Test Pilot and Flight and Aerological Officer at the Naval Aircraft Factory, Philadelphia. He served in that capacity for two years before returning to Quantico in June 1932, to enter the Company Officers' Course at the Marine Corps Schools. He completed that course in July 1933, and a month later entered the Air Corps Tactical School at Montgomery, Alabama.
  Graduating from the tactical school in June 1934, Schilt began another four years at Quantico, where he was air officer on the staff of the commanding general, Fleet Marine Force, and later a squadron commander with Aircraft One, Fleet Marine Force. He then served from May 1938 to June 1940, as executive officer of the Marine Corps Air Station St. Thomas, on the Virgin Islands. After that he returned to Quantico to complete the Senior Course in the Marine Corps Schools and serve with Base Air Detachment 1, Fleet Marine Force.
  He left Quantico in May 1941, when he was assigned to the American embassy in London, United Kingdom, as an assistant naval attache for air. In that capacity he traveled through England and Scotland and served as a naval observer in North Africa and the Middle East. He returned to the United States in August 1941, and was assigned to Quantico as engineer and supply officer of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing.
  In September 1942, he arrived on Guadalcanal as assistant 
caption: 1stLt Schilt and President Coolidge at the White House, Medal of Honor presentation, c 1928. Note that his Medal of Honor is in the Tiffany Cross pattern.
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