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 Sergeant William Olyphant Nicol (ASN: 1276736), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Company A, 111th Machine-Gun Battalion, 29th Division, American Expeditionary Forces, near Verdun, France, 12 October 1918, in keeping the guns of his section in action under heavy shell fire covering the advance of the infantry. Sergeant Nocol’s section was caught in a hostile barrage, by which two of his men were killed and fire wounded. Sergeant Nicol lead the rest of the section to shelter and then returned under shell fire and rescued the wounded and dead bodies.