The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Ensign Henry R. Benjamin, United States Navy (Reserve Force), for distinguished and heroic service as an aviator in an aeroplane attached to the Northern Bombing Group, engaged in active operations cooperating with the Allied Armies on the Belgian Front during September, October, and November 1918, bombing enemy bases, aerodromes, submarine bases, ammunition dumps, railroad junctions.