The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 2, 1926, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to First Lieutenant (Field Artillery) James W. Ramsey (ASN: 0-1175282), United States Army, for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight on 17 December 1944 in Belgium. Lieutenant Ramsey, upon learning that the air strip on which his airplane was based was about to be overrun by enemy mechanized forces, unhesitatingly and voluntarily chose to fly his unarmed, unarmored airplane from the area, which was then under fire by an enemy tank only two hundred yards away, and also under a concentration of timed artillery and machine gun fire. This action by Lieutenant Ramsey made his craft available for reconnaissance and use in adjusting artillery fire, thus helping to check the German counterattack.