Joseph W. Emery, Jr.

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Joseph W. Emery, Jr., First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Vierzy, France, July 18, 1918. While attached to the regimental post of command in the rear, Lieutenant Emery voluntarily joined the assaulting battalion as a platoon leader in a company which was short of officers. When desperate hostile resistance was encountered at the outset of the attack and all the other officers of the company became casualties, he took command of the company and courageously led his men in overcoming enemy machine-gun nests. While rushing an enemy position at the head of his men this gallant officer was killed.