The 15 men who earned the Medal of Honor during the Pearl Harbor attacks

For The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Machinist’s Mate First Class Robert Raymond Scott, United States Navy, for conspicuous devotion to duty, extraordinary courage and complete disregard of his own life, above and beyond the call of duty, during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, by Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. The compartment, in the U.S.S. CALIFORNIA (BB-44), in which the air compressor, to which Machinist’s Mate First Class Scott was assigned as his battle station, was flooded as the result of a torpedo hit. The remainder of the personnel evacuated that compartment but Scott refused to leave, saying words to the effect “This is my station and I will stay and give them air as long as the guns are going.”