The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy and Marine Corps Medal to Hospital Apprentice First Class Thurman W. Poe, United States Naval Reserve, for heroic conduct as a member of a naval beach battalion in the Normandy invasion, 6 June 1944. Hospital Apprentice First Class Poe disembarked from an LCT into deep water under heavy mortar fire with an Army captain. When the captain’s life belt failed and he was in grave danger of drowning, Hospital Apprentice First Class Poe went to the officer’s rescue and brought him to the beach.