The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Sergeant [then Corporal] Orville B. Simmons (MCSN: 210203), United States Marine Corps, for distinguished service in the line of his profession as an aviator attached to Aircraft Squadrons, Second Marine Brigade, operating in the Republic of Nicaragua. On 22 July 1931, while acting as observer in an aerial patrol on the Coco River in the vicinity of Saclin, Sergeant Simmons displayed such coolness, aggressiveness, and accuracy in the handling of a Thompson sub-machine gun against a large group of bandits and against heavy machine gun fire from the ground, during which time his plane was hit at least sixteen times, that several bandits were killed and the machine guns silenced. After his plane had been forced down only a few miles from the site of the combat, Sergeant Simmons, by his willing co-operation, cheerful attitude and resourcefulness under the most discouraging circumstances, greatly aided the pilot of his plane in the march back to Puerto Cabezas over almost impassable terrain, in which five over-flowing rivers and approximately ten miles of swamp had to be traversed. Sergeant Simmons’ conduct in the action at Saclin assisted materially the military operations then in progress in Northeastern Nicaragua and contributed to a later successful occupation of Saclin by Guardia patrols.