The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 2, 1926, takes pleasure in presenting the Soldier’s Medal to Private First Class Franklin G. Mead, United States Army, for heroism at the risk of life not involving conflict with an armed enemy on 11 March 1964 at Pier 4, New York, while serving as a Military Police at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, New York. When Private Mead was informed at midnight that a man had fallen from an unlighted pier into the icy waters of New York Bay, he immediately drove to the scene to render assistance. Upon learning that the victim, a Navy man, was too numb from exposure to respond to the rescue techniques of the personnel on the pier, Private Mead completely disregarded his own personal safety, volunteered to be lowered into the water to tie a line around the waist of the man trapped in a narrow opening between a barge and the pier, and succeeded in his efforts. Then, when the rescue party on the pier was unable to haul both of them from the water at the same time, Private Mead ignored the danger of being crushed between the barge and the pier by water movement, and unhesitatingly released himself from the line to permit the Navy man to be pulled to safety first. Private Mead’s heroic action in this hazardous rescue mission reflects great credit upon himself and the military service.