The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Legion of Merit to Captain (MC) James R. Kingston, United States Navy, for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States from 1 January 1959 to 31 December 1961 as Head of the General Medicine and Surgery Research Branch, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Washington, D.C. Recognizing the serious loss of training time engendered by epidemics of respiratory diseases among recruit populations, Captain Kingston conceived, planned, organized and directed a scientific study of the U.S. Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina. As a result, the Eaton Agent was identified as the prevalent causative organism in primary atypical pneumonia. It was also established that the administration of demethylchlortetracycline provided an effective treatment. This knowledge will materially reduce the time lost due to illness during recruit training.