The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy and Marine Corps Medal to Rear Admiral [then Captain] Phillip Bentley Eaton, United States Coast Guard, for heroic conduct on the occasion of the wreck of three trains on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad near Dickerson, Maryland, on 24 September 1942. Realizing that several passengers were imprisoned under the wreckage and in imminent danger of burning to death from nearby fires, Rear Admiral Eaton unhesitatingly went to their reduce. Risking his life by crawling on hands and knees beneath a mass of heavy pipes, he succeeded in placing an injured man on his back and carrying him to safety then returning with a comrade repeated this courageous action until all who were not inextricably pinned in the wreckage were brought out.