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 Fred C. Pruitt (ASN: 1317351), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with 2d Battalion, 119th Infantry Regiment, 30th Division, American Expeditionary Forces, near Ypres, Belgium, 25 August 1918. At imminent peril to his own life, Sergeant Pruitt and two companions extinguished a fire in an ammunition dump, caused by a bursting shell, thereby preventing the explosion of the dump and saving the lives of a large number of men who were in the vicinity.