William E. Wood

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to William E. Wood, Gunnery Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism while serving with the Company A, 6th Machine-Gun Battalion, 6th Regiment (Marines), 2d Division, A.E.F. in action with the enemy in Bois-de-Belleau, France, on the night of June 15, 1918. When a non-commissioned officer of his company lay helplessly wounded in a position exposed to heavy and continuous enemy artillery fire, Gunnery Sergeant Wood voluntarily left the comparative safety of a dugout and went to his assistance. Crawling on his hands and knees in the darkness through the intense enemy fire, Gunnery Sergeant Wood finally reached the wounded non commissioned officer, and with the help of an officer dragged him to the safety of the dugout, thereby saving his life.

Decorations U.S. Army, Supplement V, 1941