Navy Federal Credit Union

Awards Received

  • Navy and Marine Corps Medal

    Service:

    United States Navy

    Rank:

    Chief Pharmacist’s Mate

    Division:

    1st Marine Air Wing

    Action Date:

    October 21, 1942

    Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin No. 319 (October 1943)

    The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy and Marine Corps Medal to Chief Pharmacist’s Mate Vernon M. Floyd, United States Navy, for heroic conduct while serving as a Medical Corpsman attached to the FIRST Marine Aircraft Wing, at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, during World War II. In charge of 16 patients being evacuated by air from Guadalcanal on 21 October 1942, Chief Pharmacist’s Mate Floyd suffered three fractured ribs when the plane made a forced landing on a coral reef. For ten days thereafter, although suffering acute pain, he gave expert care to all hands, and manufactured a device for the distillation of sea water. Largely through his efforts all evacuees were eventually rescued in good physical condition.

  • Silver Star

    Service:

    United States Navy

    Rank:

    Chief Pharmacist’s Mate

    Division:

    1st Marine Air Wing

    Action Date:

    October 13 – 14, 1942

    Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin No. 321 (December 1943)

    The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Chief Pharmacist’s Mate Vernon M. Floyd, United States Navy, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving as a Corpsman attached to the FIRST Marine Aircraft Wing during an attack on the Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, by enemy Japanese surface and air forces on the night of 13 – 14 October 1942. When several salvos from Japanese warships fell short and exploded in a bivouac area, Chief Pharmacist’s Mate Floyd, at the height of the action, voluntarily left his place of safety, obtained an ambulance half a mile away, removed wounded officers and men to a sheltered area, obtained blood plasma for them, and at dawn took them under fire to Henderson Field, where they were loaded into an ambulance plane. His great courage under fire and unwavering devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.