The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Lieutenant Walter Seibert, United States Navy, for distinguished and heroic service in the line of his profession while serving on the U.S.S. Charles Whittemore as part of a patrol unit operating against submarines off the Atlantic coast of the United States. A leak having been started in the battery compartment of the U.S.S. N-5, one of the submarines of the patrol unit which threatened to put the submarine out of action through the flooding of the battery and the development of chlorine gas, Lieutenant Seibert, in company with Commander Guy E. Davis, entered the flooded compartment, and for four hours these officers alternated at lying on their backs in the water and calking the leaking seams, while the crew of the boat, by bailing, succeeded in keeping the water just below the top of the battery. As a result of this action, the boat was enabled to keep the sea for 18 days and to carry out the orders under which the unit was acting for the protection of the coast and shipping of the United States.