The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Captain Hugo Wilson Osterhaus, United States Navy, for distinguished service in the line of his profession as Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. WHEELING, engaged in the important, exacting and hazardous duty of patrolling the waters infested with enemy submarines and mines, and in escorting and protecting merchant vessels through these waters; and in particular, for an attack, in company with other escorting ships, upon an enemy submarine on 17 May 1918.