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 Corporal William M. Rice (ASN: 1284782), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Company E, 115th Infantry Regiment, 29th Division, American Expeditionary Forces, in Consenvoye Woods, France, 9 October 1918. Seeing a good position in advance of the lines, Corporal Rice took his automatic rifle and crawled through machine-gun fire to this place, where he established an automatic-rifle post and called on his squad to follow him. An enemy counterattack was eventually broken up at this point and the line was thereby advanced to a more advantageous position.