Orlen Nelson Thompson

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Orlen Nelson Thompson, First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near the Argonne Forest, France, September 26, 1918. In the course of a successful advance, in which ten of the enemy had been captured, Lieutenant Thompson was severely wounded in the head by a shell fragment, but, after regaining consciousness, he refused assistance and carefully transmitted all orders and information to the second-in-command. Though he was weak from loss of blood, he went to the rear unaided, taking with him ten prisoners.