The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Aviation Chief Machinist’s Mate John R. McCants, United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism while participating in an aerial rescue on 15 May 1941. When Lieutenant Walter S. Osipoff, U.S. Marine Corps, attempted to jump from the R2D-1 airplane No. 9994 during a parachute training exercise, the shrouds of the partly opened parachute became entangled with the static cable and the rip-cord lines of other parachutes. Head down, he dangled helplessly about one hundred feet below and astern of the plane. Observing the plight of Lieutenant Osipoff from the ground, Lieutenant William Lowrey and Aviation Chief Machinist’s Mate McCants, test pilots, attached to the Naval Air Station, San Diego, California, upon their own initiative took off, with Lieutenant Lowrey a the controls of a Navy plane, the SOC-1 to attempt a rescue. Lieutenant Lowrey skillfully maneuvered his plane until after several attempts, Aviation Chief Machinist’s Mate McCants, standing in the rear cockpit, was able to grasp Lieutenant Osipoff and insert part of his body, head first, into the rear cockpit. While Chief Aviation Machinist’s Mate McCants was attempting to cut the shrouds of Lieutenant Osipoff’s parachute, bumpy air threw the propeller of the SOC plane into the tail fairing of the Douglass, cutting off about twelve inches of the fairing cone as well as the entangled shrouds. With his plane encumbered with shroud lines and a part of the parachute fouling the empennage, and the additional weight of an extra passenger partly out of the rear cockpit, Lieutenant Lowrey skillfully maneuvered his plane to a safe landing. This is considered one of the most brilliant and daring rescues within the annals of our Naval history. The skill, courage, initiative, and resourcefulness displayed by Lieutenant Lowrey and Aviation Chief Machinist’s Mate McCants in effecting the rescue of Lieutenant Osipoff at the imminent risk of their lives were in keeping with the highest traditions of the Naval Service.