The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy and Marine Corps Medal to Lieutenant, Junior Grade Dwight W. Pate, United States Navy, for heroic conduct on 5 February 1966, after being involved in a helicopter crash in the Gulf of Tonkin, South China Sea, with ten shipmates. Lieutenant, Junior Grade, Pate, in pounding seas and high winds, helped a man with a deflated life jacket to the floating, inverted helicopter. Though almost exhausted after this action, he immediately swam to another survivor, who had no life jacket, and kept him afloat until a rescue craft lifted both men to safety.