The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Lieutenant Gregoire F. J. LaBelle, United States Navy, for distinguished service in the line of his profession, as Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. C-259, engaged in the important, exacting and hazardous duty of patrolling the waters of the War Zone and operating against enemy submarines, and later in the difficult and dangerous work of removing the North Sea Mine Barrage and destroying drifting mines.