The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Commander John Frank Harper, Jr., United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism and distinguished service in the line of his profession as Commanding Officer of the Destroyer U.S.S. INGRAHAM (DD-694), in action against enemy Japanese forces during an air-sea battle off Okinawa, on 4 May 1945. With the ships of his formation subjected to continuous bombing, strafing and suicide attacks by more than forty enemy planes, Commander Harper gallantly met the savage assaults and fought his ship brilliantly, maintaining devastating anti-aircraft fire to shoot down five of the hostile aircraft. When a sixth suicide plane crashed on board and caused serious flooding during a coordinated attack, he personally surveyed the damage and directed the control and, by his unfaltering leadership, aided materially in saving his ship and in keeping her guns firing until the last of the attackers had been destroyed. His courage and determination throughout were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.