Navy Federal Credit Union

Awards Received

  • Distinguished Service Cross

    Service:

    United States Army

    Rank:

    First Lieutenant (Infantry)

    Regiment:

    9th Infantry Regiment

    Division:

    2d Division, American Expeditionary Forces

    Action Date:

    July 18, 1918

    War Department, General Orders No. 108 (1919)

    The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pride in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross (Posthumously) to First Lieutenant (Infantry) Joseph Welch Emery, Jr., United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with 9th Infantry Regiment, 2d Division, American Expeditionary Forces, near Vierzy, France, 18 July 1918. While attached to the regimental post of command in the rear, Lieutenant Emery voluntarily joined the assaulting battalion as a platoon leader in a company which was short of officers. When desperate hostile resistance was encountered at the outset of the attack and all the other officers of the company became casualties, he took command of the company and courageously led his men in overcoming enemy machine-gun nests. While rushing an enemy position at the head of his men this gallant officer was killed.