The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Lieutenant Carlton Howard Clark (NSN: 0-81769), United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Commander of a Navy Patrol Plane in Patrol Squadron ELEVEN (VP-11), in action against the enemy from 5 through 11 September 1942, in the Solomon Islands. On 5 August 1942 piloting 11-P-10, he participated in the seizure of Ndeni. On 6 August 1942, he conducted a 650-mile patrol from Ndeni under adverse weather conditions. He was to return at night but due to zero visibility, he flew an all night radar patrol, conserved fuel and landed at dawn after 18 hours flight. This flight had an important tactical bearing on the situation since our forces moved into the Solomon Islands that morning. On 7 August 1942, without any rest, he made an emergency flight transferring a dying soldier from Ndeni to Efate and at the same time he conducted a search for Lieutenant Flannery’s crew in 11-P-13 which had gone down at sea due to bad weather conditions the previous night. On 8 August 1942, he volunteered and continued search for 11-P-13. On 9 August 1942, he conducted aerial reconnaissance of Santo Isabel Island in search of a suspected seaplane fighter base. That evening he was hospitalized for excessive fatigue, having flown a total of 56 hours in four days. On 6 September 1942, while on routing patrol from Ndeni, he intercepted a report from 11-P-5 in his adjacent sector that a four-engine enemy patrol plane had been contacted. Lieutenant Clark immediately proceeded to the scene and joined the other PBY in a determined attack against the Japanese plane with the following results: The enemy plane broke off the engagement with engines smoking and streaming gasoline, 3 Japanese gunners were seriously wounded or killed; 11-P-5 had a punctured fuel tank and a mortally wounded gunner, and Lieutenant Clark’s plane received minor structural damage. On returning to base, 11-P-5 was forced down at sea for lack of fuel and Lieutenant Clark rendered invaluable service by reporting the accurate position of 11-P-5 which led to the ultimate rescue of the crew. On 11 September 1942, while on routing patrol from Ndeni, Lieutenant Clark reported that he had contacted an enemy destroyer and cargo ship (no doubt a seaplane tender) 600 miles out and that he was climbing into position for a bombing attack. Then, he reported that he was being attacked by enemy aircraft (probably Zeros on floats) and later the word “down” was intercepted by another plane. The crew has been “missing” since this action.