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 Private Joseph Charles (ASN: 1721431), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Company L, 306th Infantry Regiment, 77th Division, American Expeditionary Forces, in the Forest of Argonne, France, 2 October 1918. When his company was held up by barbed wire during an attack on hostile machine guns, Private Charles displayed marked courage in crawling over the wire to the dugout occupied by the enemy and capturing single-handed 20 prisoners and a machine gun.