The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to First Lieutenant Joseph Edward Stika, United States Coast Guard, for heroic conduct on the occasion of the fire at the T.A. Gillespie shell-loading plant, Morgan, New Jersey, on 4 and 5 October 1918, when, with others, he moved a train loaded with high explosives to a place of safety through an area where fire was liable to break out at any moment.