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 Technical Sergeant [then Staff Sergeant] Eugene J. Bigda (ASN: 32017934), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy while serving as Squad Leader in Company B, 106th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division, in action against enemy forces on 28 May 1945 at Onna Taka, Okinawa, where he destroyed five of the enemy who had infiltrated behind his company and set up a position blocking its supply route. Moving along a narrow ridge until opposite the enemy machine-gun position on a second ridge, Technical Sergeant Bigda then turned down into the precipitous gulch between them. Taking over an hour, he finally reached the floor of the ravine and started up the other side, climbing an almost perpendicular slope, working his way up in a driving rain which made the cliff a mass of slippery, sticky mud. Slipping and falling at almost every step, literally pulling himself up the side of the cliff by weeds and bush roots, he finally reached the top. Raising his head over the edge and immediately finding himself staring straight into the muzzle of the Japanese gun, Sergeant Bigda ducked below the ridge just as the enemy gunners opened fire. Hanging to the cliff with one hand, desperately digging a toe hold, he took grenades from his pocket with the other hand, pulled the pins with his teeth, and lobbed them over the crest into the enemy position one after another, until the gun was silenced and the enemy killed. Eliminating this dangerous enemy position by his heroic and determined action, Sergeant Bigda exemplified the highest traditions of the military forces of the United States and reflected great credit upon himself, the 27th Infantry Division, and the United States Army.