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 Clarence Walker Lake (ASN: 1655959), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Company F, 127th Infantry Regiment, 32d Division, American Expeditionary Forces, near Gesnes, France, 5 October 1918. With two other soldiers, Corporal Lake advanced ahead of their company and rushed an enemy machine-gun nest from the flank, capturing 14 members of the crew and two machine-guns and thereby enabling the advance to continue. Carrying the captured guns with them to the objective, they later used them successfully in repelling a hostile counterattack.