The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Lieutenant, Junior Grade J. V. Deede, United States Navy, for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight while commanding a PBY-type airplane which delivered a bombing attack on a Japanese naval force in Jolo Harbor, Sulu, Philippine Islands on 27 December 1941. While under continuous anti-aircraft fire which crippled his plane, and while opposed by enemy fighters, he successfully evaded the enemy and landed his plane at sea, from which he and the members of his crew were rescued by another PBY-type airplane. He also distinguished himself by shooting down an enemy fighter which attacked him.