Fred Kochli

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Fred Kochli, First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Montfaucon, France, September 27, 1918. When the advance of the 37th Division was temporarily halted by terrific enemy machine-gun fire, Lieutenant Kochli volunteered to command a patrol and before dawn advanced for several hundred yards against a most stubborn hostile resistance, attacked and captured an enemy machine-gun company consisting of 14 machine guns, 3 officers, and 23 enlisted men. Leaving the captured guns and prisoners with his patrol, Lieutenant Kochli, with two noncommissioned officers, further advanced to Montfaucon in the face of heavy machine-gun fire and captured three 77-mm field pieces and two light machine guns, thereby aiding materially the advance of the 37th Division.