The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy and Marine Corps Medal to Chief Aviation Boatswain’s Mate William M. Cullity, United States Navy, for heroism at the risk of life not involving conflict with an armed enemy while serving at the United States Naval Air Facility, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, on 14 March 1958. Upon discovering the YOG-70 had broken loose from her moorings and was adrift 150 yards offshore in a heavy sea, Chief Aviation Boatswain’s Mate Cullity, along with a shipmate, immediately lowered a 13-foot plywood recreation skiff into the rough, icy sea and paddled against a strong tide to the vessel, pulling 200 yards of manila line behind the skiff. After boarding the vessel, he assisted in making fast the line, well aware that if the line parted he would be adrift at sea in an uncontrollable vessel loaded with 250,000 gallons of aviation fuel, and with no possibility of outside assistance. With the manila line, he aided in hauling in a wire rope attached to a D-8 tractor ashore, thus insuring the safe return of YOG-70 to her moorings.