Pierpont M . Hamilton Pierpont Morgan Hamilton ( August 3 , 1898 – March 4 , 1982 ) was a general officer in the United States Air Force . As a United States Army Air Forces officer in World War II , he was the recipient of the United States military ' s highest decoration , the Medal of Honor . Hamilton and Col . Demas T . Craw were the first Army Air Forces recipients of the Medal in the European - Mediterranean theater of World War II and the only AAF members to be awarded that decoration for valor not involving air combat . Biography . Hamilton was born in Tuxedo Park , New York on August 3 , 1898 , to William Pierson Hamilton ( great - grandson of Alexander Hamilton ) and Juliet Pierpont Morgan ( daughter of John Pierpont Morgan ) . His siblings included Helen Morgan Hamilton , Laurens Morgan Hamilton , Alexander Hamilton , and Elizabeth Hamilton . He attended the Groton School and Harvard University , where he eventually attained both his bachelor ' s ( 1920 ) and Master ' s Degree ( 1946 ) . World War I . On August 7 , 1917 , after the United States joined World War I , he left Harvard , where he was a sophomore , to enlist as an aviation cadet , and was assigned to ground training at the School of Military Aeronautics at Cornell University . Upon his graduation on October 13 , 1917 , he was transferred to the Aeronautical General Supply Depot and Concentration Barracks at Hazelhurst Field , Garden City , New York , and assigned to the foreign service detachment to complete his flight training overseas . Illness prevented him from sailing with his detachment , and he was reassigned to flight training at Ellington Field , Texas , on February 6 , 1918 . On May 9 , 1918 he received his Reserve Military Aviator rating and was commissioned as a First Lieutenant in the Signal Officer ' s Reserve Corps . Hamilton served as in the Air Service as an instructor in aerial navigation , meteorology , astronomy and officer - in - charge of bombing instruction at Ellington Field . Hamilton was promoted to captain on September 21 , 1918 . On December 31 , 1918 , he was honorably discharged from service . Between wars . Hamilton married Marie Louise Blair , daughter of C . Ledyard Blair , on September 11 , 1919 . The wedding was held near Bernardsville , New Jersey , with a lavish reception at Blairsden Mansion . They had three children before divorcing : Philip , David and Ian . He married Rebecca Stickney on January 3 , 1930 . The second marriage also ended in divorce , with no children . His third and final marriage was on August 27 , 1945 to Norah Straus . Hamilton adopted her son Harold from a previous marriage . In the interwar years , he engaged in international banking , lived in France for several years and became fluent in French . He also operated a commercial development business of patents and processes in sound and color photography . World War II . In World War II , Hamilton applied for reappointment to the Army and was commissioned a major , Air Corps , on March 2 , 1942 . His first assignment was staff duty with the A - 2 ( Intelligence ) Division , Army Air Forces Headquarters , as a liaison officer to the Royal Air Force . In June 1942 he went to London where , as an intelligence and operations officer in the Office of Combined Operations ( under Lord Louis Mountbatten ) , he assisted in planning assaults on continental Europe , including the Dieppe Raid , and North Africa . In September 1942 he returned to Washington to discuss the plan for the North African assault ( Operation Torch ) with the commanding general of the Western Task Force , Major General George S . Patton . A month later he was appointed Assistant Chief of Staff ( G - 2 ) of Maj . Gen . Lucian K . Truscott ' s " Force Goalpost " , conducting the assault on western French Morocco . Medal of Honor action . On November 8 , 1942 , when French forces resisted Allied landing operations , Hamilton undertook a mission for Truscott to deliver a message to the local French commander near Port Lyautey , French Morocco , to broker a cease fire . He was joined in the mission by Col . Demas T . Craw , who volunteered to accompany Hamilton to lend the prestige of his rank to the negotiations . The officers came ashore in the first wave of " Goalpost " landing craft carrying troops of the 2nd Battalion , 60th Regimental Combat Team , but the alerted French defenders began shelling the force and prevented a planned landing at a jetty on the Sebou River near French headquarters . After landing on Green Beach before dawn , still under hostile fire from shore batteries , the officers commandeered a small truck and were strafed by French aircraft when it became stuck in a muddy marsh . After the truck was extricated by a detachment of combat engineers , they attempted to continue their mission but were forced to return to the beach when caught in the exchanges of French artillery and naval gunfire from Task Group 34 . 8 of the United States Navy . When Truscott expressed misgivings about the mission , Craw convinced him to allow them to continue . They located a jeep and enlisted its driver , Pfc . Orris V . Correy , to cross through the French lines . Craw carried unfurled American and French flags , and Hamilton a white flag , in an attempt to safeguard their passage . At dawn the officers reached the jetty that was to have been their original starting point . After several contacts with French troops to obtain directions , and requesting a guide ( which was refused ) , the jeep proceeded cautiously approximately six miles into Port Lyautey . As they came over a rise on the outskirts near the French headquarters , a hidden machine gun position took them under sustained fire and killed Craw . The two survivors were captured but Hamilton ' s anger at the killing of Craw under a flag of truce intimidated the French , who agreed to take him to the French command post . The local commander , Col . Charles Petit , declined to order a cease - fire but agreed to forward Hamilton ' s message to his immediate superior , Major General Maurice Mathenet . Fearful of the possible consequences for killing an officer traveling under a flag of truce , the French refused to allow Hamilton to communicate with his headquarters and kept him under " house arrest . " On the morning of November 10 , Petit was captured by U . S . troops and ordered the " 1er Regiment de Tirailleurs Marocain " to surrender . Hamilton took custody of Petit , who made direct contact with Mathenet on the evening of November 10 and persuaded him to end French resistance . With the assistance of Mathenet ' s deputy commander , Hamilton drove to the Port Lyautey airport , which had been captured by tanks of the U . S . 70th Tank Battalion . There he relayed news of the surrender to Truscott , arranged a ceasefire at 0400 on November 11 , and scheduled a formal ceremony of surrender four hours later . French Admiral Jean Darlan ordered French troops in North Africa to cease resistance . Truscott and Patton recommended both officers for the Medal of Honor , which Hamilton received on January 23 , 1943 . Craw was also awarded the medal posthumously later in 1943 . Subsequent service . In December 1942 Hamilton became Intelligence and Air Officer for the North African Theater Advanced Headquarters at Algiers and was promoted to lieutenant colonel . The following month he was appointed Operations and Intelligence Staff Officer for the Northwest African Tactical Air Force . He returned to the United States in March 1943 , was promoted to colonel on October 26 , and after various assignments at AAF Headquarters in Washington and with the Joint Chiefs of Staff , was relieved from active duty in March 1946 . In February 1947 he returned to active - duty with the Plans and Operations Division of the War Department General Staff . After the AAF became the United States Air Force , Hamilton was assigned to Headquarters USAF in the Office of Director of Plans and Operations . He became chief of the Air Force Policy Division in August 1948 and was promoted to brigadier general on December 21 . He served with the United States Air Forces in Europe in both Wiesbaden and Paris in 1951 , then returned to Washington D . C . for duty with the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force . Hamilton left active duty on March 31 , 1952 . He resided in Montecito , California , and continued service in the Air Force Reserve , resuming duties with the Policy Division . Promoted to major general on June 20 , 1955 , he completed the Reserve and National Guard General Officer Orientation Course at the Air War College in 1957 . Following his military retirement in 1959 , Hamilton held a number of civilian business positions , including an association with Electronic Products Corporation of Santa Barbara , California and as an executive with the Santa Barbara Bank & Trust until 1979 , when his health deteriorated . Hamilton was admitted to the VA Wadsworth Medical Center in Los Angeles and died at age 83 . Hamilton was buried in Santa Barbara Cemetery , Santa Barbara , California . Awards and decorations . Reserve Military Aviator World War II Victory Medal Army of Occupation Medal National Defense Service Medal Armed Forces Reserve Medal Order of the British Empire Order of Merito Cristo ( Portugal ) Medal of Honor citation . The President of the United States of America , in the name of Congress , takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Major ( Air Corps ) Pierpont Morgan Hamilton , United States Army Air Forces , for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty while serving as the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence , Western Task Force , in North Africa during the landings of Operation Torch . On 8 November 1942 , near Port Lyautey , French Morocco , Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton volunteered to accompany Colonel Demas Craw on a dangerous mission to the French commander , designed to bring about a cessation of hostilities . Driven away from the mouth of the Sebou River by heavy shelling from all sides , the landing boat was finally beached at Mehdia Plage despite continuous machinegun fire from three low - flying hostile planes . Driven in a light truck toward French headquarters , this courageous mission encountered intermittent firing , and as it neared Port Lyautey a heavy burst of machinegun fire was delivered upon the truck from pointblank range , killing Colonel Craw instantly . Although captured immediately , after this incident , Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton completed the mission .