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 (Infantry) Clarence A. Bailey, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Company L, 318th Infantry Regiment, 80th Division, American Expeditionary Forces, during the Meuse-Argonne offensive, France, November 1 – 6, 1918. On the night of 4 November 1918, when the left of the division was counterattacked and temporarily driven back from La Thibaudine Farm, though passed by the retiring front lines and under no obligation to remain in advance of them, Lieutenant Bailey and a companion, though having been advised to withdraw, nevertheless, decided to remain and continued throughout the night several hundred yards beyond the division outposts in an exposed locality well known to the enemy, where they were swept by cross fire of machine guns and under an intensive artillery bombardment, both by enemy guns and by our own fire. From this position they continued to render reports of hostile movements over a telephone line, maintained at the greatest personal risk, to such good purpose that the attack of the division, renewed on the morning of 5 November 1918, was a complete success. To this voluntary exposure and gallantry in disregard of self is due in large measure the success of the division in carrying out the mission assigned to it.