The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy and Marine Corps Medal to Fireman Raymond F. Rigney, Jr., United States Navy, for heroism on the early morning of 3 June 1964 while serving aboard U.S.S. LAKE CHAMPLAIN CVS-39), which was proceeding up Chesapeake Bay en route to Annapolis, Maryland. When the Norwegian ship SKAUVAAG collided with LAKE CHAMPLAIN in a dense fog, Fireman Rigney, awakened by the collision and general quarters alarms, proceeded to his general quarters station on the hangar deck and helped man a fire hose on the starboard catwalk. When it became apparent that burning acetylene bottles could not be extinguished, he voluntarily crawled along the badly damaged catwalk in darkness, without the benefit of lifelines and threw the burning acetylene bottles over the side of the ship into the water, thereby preventing possible explosion and death or serious injury to ship’s personnel.