Regulation size Army Distinguished Service Cross Military Medal. The Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) is the second highest military decoration of the United States Army which is awarded for extreme gallantry and risk of life in actual combat with an armed enemy force. Actions which merit the Distinguished Service Cross must be of such a high degree to be above those required for all other U.S. combat decorations but not meeting the criteria for the Medal of Honor. The Distinguished Service Cross is equivalent to the Navy Cross (Navy and Marine Corps) and the Air Force Cross (Air Force).

The Distinguished Service Cross was introduced in January 1918 by President Woodrow Wilson and formalized by the United States Congress on July 9, 1918.

During World War I, General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force in France, identified the need in the army for a lesser award than the Medal of Honor that recognized acts of bravery. The Distinguished Service Cross was adapted from the criteria of the Certificate of Merit Medal and designed by Lieutenant Aymar E. Embry of the U.S Engineers Officer Reserve Corps.

The first recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross were three soldiers of the U.S. Army First Division, those being Second Lieutenant John Newport Greene of the 6th Field Artillery, as well as Sergeant William M. Norton and Private Patrick Walsh of Company I, 18th Infantry Regiment.

An award of the Distinguished Service Cross entitled an enlisted recipient with more than 20 years of service to a 10% increase in their retirement pay. This decoration should not be confused with the Distinguished Service Medal, which recognizes meritorious service to the government of the United States (as a senior military officer or government official) rather than individual acts of bravery (as a member of the United States Army).