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 Sergeant Rufus Bean (ASN: 541927), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Company G, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3d Division, American Expeditionary Forces, near Cunel, France, 11 October 1918. Though he had been so severely gassed as to be incapacitated for duty, and was also suffering from a painful rupture, Sergeant Bean remained in command of his platoon, which had been reduced to two squads, and led it under heavy artillery and machine-gun fire in an attack on an enemy machine-gun position, killing the gunners and capturing the gun. With conspicuous bravery he directed the consolidation of the position in the captured trench, under continuous machine-gun and artillery barrage.