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 John Carl Martens, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism while serving with Company C, 31st Infantry, American Expeditionary Forces (Siberia), in action near Kazanka, Siberia, 3 July 1919. Private Martens carried a message across a field under fairly heavy fire. He then volunteered to go to break up a sniper’s nest, and went alone to an exposed and dangerous point where he could fire at the nest and broke it up, killing one of the snipers and driving the rest away.