The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal in lieu of the Certificate of Merit previously issued to Private John Belmont, United States Army, for heroic efforts to his own extreme exhaustion and danger while serving as a member of Company B, 23d Infantry Regiment, which resulted in saving a comrade from drowning at Galveston, Texas, on 18 June 1914.