The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Lieutenant Commander Joseph A. Muka, United States Navy, for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight as Officer-in-Charge, Light Photographic Squadron SIXTY-THREE, Detachment DELTA, on 19 and 22 August 1965. Assigned the task of searching for suspected surface-to-air missile sites in the Hanoi-Plu Ly and the Hanoi-Haiphong complexes, Lieutenant Commander Muka flew unarmed and unescorted. The assigned search areas were saturated with intensive anti-aircraft artillery installations, and came within the “kill envelopes” of several known surface-to-air missile sites, and were close to enemy fighter bases. Maneuvering his aircraft at low altitude throughout his search areas, Lieutenant Commander Muka exposed himself to heavy ground fire and the missile threat for over 40 minutes. The photographic results of these flights yielded vital intelligence information.