Joseph A. Rossell

The Navy Cross is presented to Joseph A. Rossell, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps, for distinguished service in the line of his profession throughout seventeen months of continuous service in the Northern Area of Nicaragua as Regimental Executive, Eleventh Regiment, U.S. Marine Corps, and Northern Area Executive, during which period he planned and executed various combat missions against bandits at a time when the Area Commander was absent. For having, during the period that he served as Executive, shown particular ability in August 1928, on a repatriation board during which he successfully induced many Nicaraguans to return to their homes from Honduras, and for acting as a member of a commission of reconstruction which did much to restore the confidence of natives of Nicaragua in the good intention of the Nicaraguan Government and the American Government to maintain an effective, just government in the Northern Area. Lieutenant Colonel Rossell displayed great efficiency in performance of his duty connected with the presidential elections in Nicaragua on November 4, 1928.