The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Colonel (Medical Corps) John L. Shepard, United States Army, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War I. In 1918, as Surgeon of Camp Funston, Kansas, and of the 89th Division, Colonel Shepard displayed high administrative, technical, and constructive ability in preventive measures adopted against epidemics and in the conservation of physical defects by their segregation and development. Later he performed conspicuous services in connection with hospital demobilization in France and the return to the United States of the sick and wounded.