The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Legion of Merit to Rear Admiral John Louis Chew, United States Navy, for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States from 10 June 1961 to 24 May 1962, as Commander Task Force 140 (Commander Project MERCURY Recovery Force). Skillfully directing the recovery operations for Project MERCURY manned space flights during this period, Rear Admiral Chew, through his outstanding professional ability and inspiring leadership, made an invaluable contribution to the successful completion of these sub-orbital and orbital flights and to the prestige earned for the United States thereby. In addition to directing the Recovery Force from the Control Center at Cape Canaveral, he also coordinated Contingency Recovery planning and information dissemination, keeping far-flung units around the world alerted as to the flight status.