The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Commander Ezra Griffin Allen, United States Navy, for distinguished service in the line of his profession as Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. SULTANA and later the U.S.S. WAKIVA, engaged in the important, exacting, and hazardous duty of transporting and escorting troops and supplies through waters invested with enemy submarines and mines during World War I.