The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross (Posthumously) to Lieutenant William J. Tate, Jr., United States Naval Reserve, for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight as Test Pilot and Gunnery Officer attached to the Armament Test Department at Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland. Lieutenant Tate carried out extremely dangerous work of testing mines and bombs. Throughout his intelligent analysis of test data, he made important contributions to the effectiveness of naval aviation and the future safety of naval aviators. He was killed on 13 April 1944 while making tests to determine safe angles of dive for fighter planes carrying large caliber bombs.