Joe Collette

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Joe Collette, Private First Class, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Sedan, France, November 7, 1918. After his company had taken up a position and were waiting for orders, Private Collette, in the absence of the company’s runners, volunteered and carried all messages to and from the battalion post of command some 800 yards distant. His route lay over a steep hillside subjected to a heavy concentration of artillery machine-gun and sniper fire. He continued to carry messages after learning that the enemy had the exact range of the post of command and a shell struck the building, killing several of the men. Having had nothing to eat for 36 hours, he finally fell, completely exhausted.