Melvin B. Johnson

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Melvin B. Johnson, Corporal, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Gesnes, France, October 14, 1918. When his battalion was held up after suffering heavy casualties from flanking machine-gun fire, Corporal Johnson went out alone with an automatic rifle, to a position 250 yards in advance of our lines, and, although subjected to intense fire from three directions, operated his gun and so neutralized the enemy fire while his battalion reformed. He was killed on this mission, undertaken on his own initiative.