The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Corporal Hugh Clifford Van Amburgh (MCSN: 85075), United States Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism while serving with the Headquarters Company, 4th Brigade (Marines), 2d Division, A.E.F. in action near Vierzy, France, 19 July 1918. As a motorcycle dispatch rider, Corporal Van Amburgh made repeated trips along shell-swept roads and in a gassed area, before and during the capture of Vierzy. When Vierzy was still in German hands, he dismounted from his motorcycle in front of the town, and with great coolness and disregard of personal safety, crawled into it and brought back information of great value to his brigade commander.





