The President of the United States
in the name of
The Congress
takes pleasure in presenting the
Medal of Honor
to
COVINGTON, JESSE WHITFIELD
Rank and Organization: Ship's Cook Third Class,
U.S. Navy. Place and Date: At sea aboard the U.S.S. Stewart, 17 April 1918. Entered
Service At: California. Born: 16 September 1889, Haywood, Tenn. G. O. No.:
403, 1918.
Citation:
For extraordinary heroism following internal explosion of the Florence H. The sea in the
vicinity of wreckage was covered by a mass of boxes of smokeless powder, which were
repeatedly exploding. Jesse W. Covington, of the U.S.S. Stewart, plunged overboard to
rescue a survivor who was surrounded by powder boxes and too exhausted to help himself,
fully realizing that similar powder boxes in the vicinity were continually exploding and
that he was thereby risking his life in saving the life of this man.
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