The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Lieutenant [then Lieutenant, Junior Grade] Orrin Kenneth Larsen, United States Naval Reserve, for extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Pilot of a carrier-based Navy Torpedo Plane and Division Leader in Torpedo Squadron NINETY-FOUR (VT-94), attached to the U.S.S. LEXINGTON (CV-16), in action against enemy Japanese forces at the important Fleet anchorage near Kure, Honshu, on 24 July 1945. Leading a division of five torpedo planes in glide bombing strike against major units of the Japanese fleet, Lieutenant Larsen deployed his planes in a favorable position for the attack against his assigned target, a carefully camouflaged aircraft carrier, and pressed home his attack on the concealed ship in the face of intense anti-aircraft fire from harbor positions and ships dispersed throughout the area, personally dived through the clouds to score a direct bomb hit, thereby facilitating the two other direct hits and two damaging near misses by other pilots and leaving the carrier gutted and in flames. When one of his planes was hit and losing gas, he led his entire division to a rendezvous point in the Inland Sea of Japan, strafing numerous small craft on the way, and subsequently conducted the return flight of two hundred and fifty miles to the Task Force. His airmanship, courage and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.