The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Distinguished Service Medal to Commander Lewis Broughton Porterfield, United States Navy, for distinguished service in the line of his profession as Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. VENETIA, engaged in the important, exacting and hazardous duty of escorting convoys through waters infested with submarines and mines, and especially for well-conducted operations against enemy submarines on 11 May 1918, 17 May 1918, and 22 July 1918, on the second of which occasion it is believed that the attacking submarine was severely damaged.