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 Stanley Williams Burke, United States Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism while serving with the Fifteenth Company, Sixth Machine-Gun Battalion, Sixth Regiment (Marines), 2d Division, A.E.F., in action with the enemy in Bois-de-Belleau, France, on the night of 15 June 1918. When a non-commissioned officer of his company lay helplessly wounded in a position exposed to heavy and continuous enemy artillery fire, Lieutenant Burke voluntarily left the comparative safety of a dugout and went to his assistance. Crawling on his hands and knees in the darkness through the intense enemy fire, Lieutenant Burke finally reached the wounded non commissioned officer, and with the help of an enlisted man dragged him to the safety of the dugout, thereby saving his life.