The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 2, 1926, takes pleasure in presenting the Soldier’s Medal to Sergeant Harry M. Hayes (ASN: 6645625), United States Army Air Corps, for heroism at the risk of life not involving conflict with an armed enemy, while serving with 44th Reconnaissance Squadron, Air Corps, when a B-10-B airplane crashed and was wrecked in the rough sea near Mariata Point, Mala Peninsula, Republic of Panama, about 11:00 a.m., 2 July 1938. Following the crash, the airplane turned completely over, trapping under water the four members of the crew. Sergeant Hayes and one other enlisted man crawled to the top of the left wing and pulled up to that position the third enlisted man who had been badly injured. By this time the pilot, dazed and on the point of drowning, managed to extricate himself and float to the surface under the left wing. Sergeant Hayes, assisted by the other uninjured enlisted man, pulled the pilot up on the wing and administered artificial respiration, thereby probably saving his life. The sergeant then obtained and inflated the life raft, after submerging three times to loosen it from its position under water, and placed the weakened pilot and injured enlisted man thereon and rowed them to shore. On hearing calls for help from the enlisted man who had been left on the wreck and who could not swim, Sergeant Hayes, unable to launch the life raft again, ordered the man to leave the wreck and attempt to float into shore. He then swam to a rock toward which the helpless man was drifting, threw him a rope, pulled him to the rock, and then to shore. The heroic conduct of Sergeant Hayes is worthy of the best traditions of the Army.