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 Second Lieutenant (Infantry) Henry M. Noel, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with 103d Infantry Regiment, 26th Division, American Expeditionary Forces, east of Belleau Wood, France, 20 July 1918. Discovering a German machine-gun nest which was inflicting severe damage upon his battalion, Second Lieutenant Noel led 12 men to the right flank of the nest and charged it up a steep hill under fire from other guns. He and his men wiped out this center of resistance and made possible the advance of his company. Although wounded himself, he personally took command of large numbers of men of the company, after his captain and other platoon commanders had been killed or wounded, and advanced with them to the company’s objective and held it.