The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to First Lieutenant (Air Service) Leonard Coombes Hammond, United States Army Air Service, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with 91st Aero Squadron, U.S. Army Air Service, A.E.F., in the region of Metz, France, 15 September 1918. While on a photographic mission Lieutenant Hammond’s formation was attacked by a superior number of enemy pursuit planes. Notwithstanding that the enemy planes succeeded in driving off the protecting planes, Lieutenant Hammond and his pilot, Lieutenant Dickens, continued on alone. Continually harassed by enemy aircraft, they completed their photographs, and on the return fought their way through an enemy patrol and destroyed on of the machines.