The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Lieutenant Robert S. Merritt, United States Navy, for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight as a fighter pilot in the Bismarck Archipelago area on 11 November 1943. Lieutenant Merritt flew high cover for Composite Squadron TWENTY-TWO during an attack on a Japanese cruiser. He led his division against a superior number of hostile aircraft attempting to intercept our formation and personally destroyed two enemy fighters, then repelled several attacks made upon his wingman whose plane had been severely damaged.