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 John J. Gribbon (ASN: 89749), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Company D, 165th Infantry Regiment, 42d Division, American Expeditionary Forces, near Meurcy Farm, France, 30 July 1918. When his patrol had been caught under a severe cross fire by machine-guns and most of the members killed or wounded, and the survivors withdrawn to cover, it was discovered that a wounded man had been left at the farthest point to which the patrol had advanced. Sergeant Gribbon, then a corporal, volunteered to rescue him. Running a hundred yards over open country swept by withering machine-gun fire, he reached the severely wounded member of his patrol, and half dragged, half carried his helpless comrade back with him to safety.