The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Navy and Marine Corps Medal (Posthumously) to Damage Controlman Third Class James Joseph Bowen (NSN: 4167317), United States Navy, for heroism on 24 May 1951 when, as a passenger in a motor launch which foundered and sank in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, he distributed life jackets to men in the launch and assisted them in disembarking from the swamped launch thereby contributing materially at the risk of his own life to the saving of others. He gave his own life jacket to a shipmate who could not swim, and, exhausted from his efforts to rescue other men, lost his own life by drowning.