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 Colonel (Infantry) Edmund Mortimer Leary, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with 358th Infantry Regiment, 90th Division, American Expeditionary Forces, near Stenay, France, 10 November 1918. Under heavy machine-gun and artillery fire Colonel Leary personally led two sections of machine guns and two platoons of infantry to the assistance of one of his battalions in order to protect its flank.