Arthur and Douglas MacArthur became the first father and son to be awarded the Medal of Honor

It is a fact that Arthur and Douglas MacArthur became the first father and son to be awarded the Medal of Honor. George Marshall chose to grant MacArthur the Medal of Honor, for which he had previously been nominated twice. Eisenhower reminded out that MacArthur had not undertaken any acts of valor as required by law, but Marshall referenced Charles Lindbergh's award of the medal in 1927 as precedent. Special legislation had been passed to authorize Lindbergh's medal, but while Congressmen J. Parnell Thomas and James E. Van Zandt introduced legislation authorizing the medal for MacArthur, Marshall felt strongly that a serving general should receive the medal from the President and the War Department, expressing that the recognition would mean more if the gallantry criteria were not waived by a bill of relief.

MacArthur had previously been nominated for the prize and recognized that it was for leadership rather than valor. MacArthur was the oldest living active-duty Medal of Honor recipient in history at the age of 62, and as a four-star general, he was the highest-ranking military servicemember ever to earn the Medal of Honor. As a result, Arthur and Douglas MacArthur became the first father and son to receive the Medal of Honor. They were the only pair until 2001 when Theodore Roosevelt won a posthumous award for his heroism during the Spanish-American War, and Theodore Roosevelt Jr. received one for his gallantry during the World War II Normandy invasion.