The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Legion of Merit to Lieutenant Commander Alan B. Crabtree, United States Navy, for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States from 1 December 1959 to 16 February 1961 as Commanding Officer, U.S.S. SUNBIRD (ARS-15). During operations in support of the POLARIS Fleet Ballistic Missile Program, Lieutenant Commander Crabtree made important and significant contributions to the development of equipment and seamanship techniques for recovery of missile launch test components, thereby greatly increasing the efficiency of the POLARIS Test Program. On 16 January 1961, in response to a call for assistance at the site of the collapse of U.S. Air Force Texas Tower Number Four, he quickly arrived in SUNBIRD and assumed command and direction of the rescue and salvage operations. Although confronted with almost constant sub-freezing, and periodic sub-zero temperatures, high winds, heavy seas, and driving snows during the following 30 days, Lieutenant Commander Crabtree directed a complete and thorough search for casualties and conducted an underwater investigation into the location and cause of structural failure, successfully completing the extremely hazardous operations without injury to personnel and with only normal operational attrition of equipment.