The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy and Marine Corps Medal to Seaman First Class Jacob Klein, Jr., United States Coast Guard, for heroic conduct on occasion of the crash of an Army B-26 bomber into the Gulf of Mexico off shore from Coast Guard Beach Patrol Station 501 on 8 August 1943. Undeterred by the absence of a boat or some other buoyant object to float out to survivors Seaman First Class Klein swam three-fourths of a mile off shore in order to reach two stunned and exhausted airmen whose life jackets have been fouled in the crash. Directing both men to cling to the after side of a partially inflated rubber boat he towed them safely into shallow water.