The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy and Marine Corps Medal to Aviation Radioman First Class Lionel F. Pelletier, United States Navy, for heroic conduct serving aboard a Patrol Bomber which crashed in the North Atlantic on 11 July 1943, while trying to rescue the crew of an RAF Fortress. Aviation Radioman First Class Pelletier assisted the members of his crew in launching two small rubber boats. Drifting for six days without water, flares or provisions, he ministered tirelessly to his comrades as they died one by one from exposure, sickness and immersion in salt water until he was rescued.