Willis J. Walker

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Willis J. Walker, Private First Class, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action in connection with military operations against an armed enemy near Bezu St. Germain, France, September 7, 1918. When fire broke out in a wood where a salvage detachment was encamped, seriously endangering the lives of 200 men because of its proximity to a pile of salvaged German high explosives 155-millimeter shells, Private First Class Walker and Sergeant Afton E. Wheeler voluntarily ran to the scene of the fire and attempted to extinguish the flames fully aware of the grave danger to themselves. They fought the fire with blankets and sticks, but the fire quickly spread to the shells. Both men were killed by the explosion which followed.