The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross (Posthumously) to Ensign Theodore Weld Sterling (NSN: 0-278330), United States Naval Reserve, for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight as pilot of a carrier-based Torpedo Plane in action in the vicinity of the Mariana Islands during World War II. Ensign Sterling scored two rocket hits on a cargo vessel, leaving it burning and out of control. During a raid on Iwo Jima, his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire which severed an oil line as he approached the target. Although aware that a forced landing was inevitable, he made a daring bombing and strafing run on a group of parked aircraft, inflicting severe damage on the planes.