The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Chief Yeoman Harry B. Alderman, United States Navy (Reserve Force), for extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty on the occasion of a fire on the U.S.S. CLEVELAND at sea, on 16 February 1918. Chief Yeoman Alderman, with others, descended into a compartment over the after-magazine, filled with smoke and suffocating fumes, and successfully extinguished the fire after forty-five minutes’ work.