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 Corporal Rexford O. Bassett (ASN: 2249609), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Company D, 358th Infantry Regiment, 90th Division, American Expeditionary Forces, near Les Hult Chemins, France, 26 September 1918. Corporal Bassett volunteered to rush an enemy machine gun which had concentrated its fire on an opening in some barbed-wire entanglement through which his company was endeavoring to advance. He gallantly attacked the pill box and temporarily silenced one of the fire openings when he was mortally wounded.