The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Distinguished Service Medal to Boatswain Karl V. Kyrklund, United States Navy, for distinguished service in the line of his profession on the occasion of an accident to the U.S.S. DOWNES, on 7 October 1918, when, in a heavy gale, a sea broke on the stern of the DOWNES, spreading the depth-charge tracks and dislodging a number of depth charges, which fell beneath the tracks where they were a menace to the ship in that they might become armed and explode. Boatswain Kyrklund, with four enlisted men, at once undertook to secure the bombs, at great personal risk to themselves, as the seas were breaking over the stern four or five feet high, and finally succeeded. Boatswain Kyrklund was seriously injured, but remained on duty for a month, with the result that he contracted tuberculosis.