The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy and Marine Corps Medal to Pharmacist’s Mate Second Class Vernard M. Hier, United States Navy, for heroic conduct following a plane crash in the harbor of Noumea, New Caledonia, on the afternoon of 30 March 1943. Pharmacist’s Mate Second Class Hier dived from the side of a rescue boat, swam to the injured pilot, broke his desperate hold from the tail of the wrecked craft, and started with him toward the crash boat just as the plane took its final plunge.