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 Samuel Carroll Hirst (MCSN: 103819), United States Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism while serving with the Fifty-Fifth Company, Fifth Regiment (Marines), 2d Division, A.E.F., in action near Blanc Mont Ridge, France, 5 October 1918. Together with another soldier, Private Hirst successfully completed the capture of a machine gun, destroying it, and killing two of the crew. Fighting his way back to his own lines, he furnished valuable information concerning enemy machine-gun emplacements.