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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 500. Life-saving medals
(a) The Secretary may, under regulations prescribed by him, award
a Life-saving medal of gold or silver to any person, including
personnel of the Coast Guard, who rescues or endeavors to rescue
any other person from drowning, shipwreck, or other peril of the
water in accordance with the following provisions:
(1) if such rescue or attempted rescue is made at the risk of
one's own life and evidences extreme and heroic daring, the medal
shall be of gold;
(2) if such rescue or attempted rescue is not sufficiently
distinguished to deserve the medal of gold, but evidences the
exercise of such signal exertion as to merit recognition, the
medal shall be of silver.
(b) In order for a person to be eligible for the Life-saving
Medals the rescue or attempted rescue must take place in waters
within the United States or subject to the jurisdiction thereof, or
if the rescue or attempted rescue takes place outside such waters,
one or the other of the parties must be a citizen of the United
States or from a vessel or aircraft owned or operated by citizens
of the United States.
(c) No person shall receive more than one gold medal and one
silver medal; but any person who has received or may hereafter
receive a gold or silver medal and who again performs an act which
would entitle him to receive another medal of the same class may be
awarded, in lieu of a second medal of the same class, a gold or
silver bar, as the case may be, to be worn with the medal already
bestowed, and for every such additional act, an additional bar may
be awarded. Medals and bars in lieu thereof, authorized by this
subsection, may be awarded posthumously.
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