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 Edward J. Lenahan (ASN: 553832), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Company B, 8th Machine-Gun Battalion, 3d Division, American Expeditionary Forces, near Montfaucon, France, 7 October 1918. Corporal Lenahan, a runner, repeatedly carried messages through heavy barrages. On one occasion, when an enemy shell struck a dugout occupied by himself and several comrades, burying two of them, though he was suffering from the concussion, he immediately set to work digging out the imprisoned men, disregarding the intense shell and machine-gun fire to which he was subjected.