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 Jesse Herbert Merrill (ASN: 2417792), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Company E, 312th Infantry Regiment, 78th Division, American Expeditionary Forces, in the Bois-de-Ronvaux, France, September 16 – 17, 1918. With the remark, “I can get through and I can find him,” Private Merrill volunteered and carried a message from his regimental commander to the commander of an advance battalion, through a fire that seemed impassible. He returned with amazing promptness with an answer to the message. This soldier made several other trips on the same night, finding his way through a dark forest, actually walking on bodies of men who had fallen in the only path that could be used.