New York Times, Sunday June 16, 1929, p. 1
3 NEW YORKERS CITED FOR VALOR IN FRANCE
M. J. McGarty and J.P. Naan KJ Get Distinguished Service
Crosses, J. P. Christy a Silver Star
Two Distinguished Service Crosses and a silver star citation
for gallantry In action were awarded by the War Department toddy to New York
men for bravery in the World War. The distinguished service crosses were given
to Michael J. McGarty of 85-15 Eightieth Street, Woodhaven. LI., and James P.
Naan of 238 West Fifty-second Street, New York City. The Silver Star went to
James P. Christy of 133 Hale Avenue, Brooklyn.
The citations accompanying the decorations read as follows:
"Michael J. McGarty, formerly sergeant, Company B,
306th Machine Gun Battalion, Seventy-seventh Division[1],
American Expeditionary Force. For
extraordinary heroism in action at Chevieres, near Grand Pre, France, Oct. 14.
1918. With utter disregard for his own personal! safety Sergeant McGarty went
forward under heavy enemy machine gun fire to rescue a severely wounded officer
arid displayed extraordinary heroism In action by helping to carry him to a
place of safety."
The 77th Infantry Division was organized from draftees,
drawn mostly from New York City, and trained at Camp Upton in Yaphank, NY in
the central part of Suffolk Country, Long Island; the camp is now Brookhaven
National Laboratory. The division consisted of the 153rd and 154th Infantry
Brigades. The 77th Infantry Division was the first American division composed
of draftees to arrive in France in World War I, landing in April 1918; overall
it was the seventh of 42 divisions to reach France. The division fought in the
Battle of Chateau-Thierry on 18 July 1918. It sustained 10,194 casualties:
1,486 killed and 8,708 wounded. The division returned to the U.S. in April 1919
and was deactivated that month. The 154th Infantry Brigade was composed of the
307th and 308th Infantry Regiments and the 306th Machine Gun Battalion.[1]
While the division had been recruited as a National Army unit from the New York
City area, attrition and replacements had complicated the complexion of the
unit. For example, Company K, 307th Infantry, had been redesignated from the
former Company L, 160th Infantry, California Army National Guard. The company
had belonged to the 40th Division, which had been converted into a depot
division in August 1918. The "Lost Battalion" of World War I fame was
composed of six companies of the 77th's 308th Infantry Regiment and one from
the 307th Infantry Regiment.
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