The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Seaman Stephen J. Mathews, United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism during an explosion of a gasoline tank in a motor boat belonging to the Air Station at Arcachon, Gironde, France, in 1918. Seaman Mathews was severely burned but went immediately to the rescue of an Army sergeant who had been rendered unconscious and saved him from drowning.