For an attack on a German U-boat on 29 July 1917, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, at that time the navy's second highest valor award. In December 1917, he returned to the U.S. to take command of the newly commissioned destroyer . By May 1918, was in Europe, patrolling off the coast of France. The journal that Commander Taussig kept of his service in World War I was published in 1996 by the Naval War College Press under the title, "The Queenstown Patrol, 1917". With the war winding down, he was detached to the Bureau of Navigation in August 1918.