The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy and Marine Corps Medal to Fireman First Class William John Blankenship (NSN: 8596344), United States Naval Reserve, for heroism not involving actual conflict with the enemy. On the night of 27 October 1944, during a tropical storm at Amsterdam Island, Dutch New Guinea, a pontoon fuel barge, assigned to the advance Motor Torpedo Base at Amsterdam, parted its mooring and drifted on a nearby reef, where, under pounding of heavy seas, two 42,000 gallon fuel tanks were torn loose and broken up by the waves. Seeing that two of the barge crew were in distress, he, without hesitation and with complete disregard for his own safety, dove overboard from another fuel barge, and despite dangerous wreckage from the fuel tanks and large quantities of 100 octane gasoline in the water, swam 500 yards through heavy seas to rescue a shipmate who was almost unconscious from severe injuries incurred when the fuel tanks broke up. His actions were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.