The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 2, 1926, takes pleasure in presenting the Soldier’s Medal to Specialist Fourth Class Joseph Higgins, United States Army, for heroism at the risk of life not involving conflict with an armed enemy as a member of Company D, 1st Airborne Battalion Group, 325th Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, at Camp Mackall, North Carolina, on 26 January 1960. Specialist Higgins was engaged in an Army training test when a fellow soldier participating in that exercise made a futile attempt to cross Drowning Creek in an effort to avoid capture by simulated aggressor forces. The escaping man found himself in water too deep for wading and too swift for swimming and being unable to reach either bank, began to flounder in midstream. Quickly realizing the victim was in fact drowning and was beginning to sink for the last time, Specialist Higgins, immediately and without concern for his own personal safety, dived fully clad and combat-equipped into the fast, freezing, treacherous waters, and swam against the strong current to the drowning man’s side. He grabbed the man, who was also fully equipped, pushed him to the side of the nearest bank, and supported him until others participating in the exercise polled the soldier to safety. Specialist Higgins; unselfish courage and prompt actions in this sudden emergency saved his fellow soldier from certain death by drowning, and reflect distinct credit upon himself and the military service.