The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Captain Thomas A. Kearney, United States Navy, for distinguished service in the line of his profession as Commanding Officer of Naval Ammunition Depot, St. Juliens Creek, where he had the task of providing and arming merchantmen and the auxiliaries as well as the Atlantic Fleet, and where he was further charged with the erection of the first mine-loading plant ever developed in the United States and with the operation of the plant.