Aeronautics: Muddled Medal

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Few laymen are more than vaguely aware that the U. S. has a Distinguished Flying Cross which it has bestowed upon 79 men. Considerably fewer can explain how and why the D. F. C. is awarded. Writing in Outlook & Independent this week Carl B. Allen, smart aviation editor of the New York World, submits: "... That the D. F. C. has strayed from its original conception as [an] acknowledgment of 'heroism or extraordinary achievement ... in an aerial flight' and degenerated somewhat into the plaything of politicians and a pawn in the hands of the Ballyhoo Boys."

Writer Allen, a flyer of twelve years experience and Captain in the Air Corps Reserve, takes as premise the order issued by President Coolidge in March 1927, making eligible for the award: 1) members of the fighting services, Coast Guard and reserves flying in line of duty, 2) members of foreign fighting forces, flying in the service of the U. S. Civilians: ineligible.

Three months after the eligibility order was issued occurred the Paris flight of Charles Augustus Lindbergh which "through the wildest stretch of the imagination, could not be construed as 'part of the duties incident to' ... membership [in the Missouri National Guard or the Air Corps Reserve]." Public clamor demanded a D. F. C. for Lindbergh, and the Air Corps expediently recommended the award.

Few months later Secretary Wilbur pinned the D. F. C. upon the breasts of Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd and Radioman Noville for the flight to France — a private venture backed by the late Rodman Wanamaker. "At the same table ... sat Bernt Balchen, Lieutenant in the Norwegian Naval Reserve . . . and Bert Acosta [who] had flown Byrd and Noville across the Atlantic ... to them, publicly, Secretary Wilbur expressed regret that because they were 'civilians' the law barred them from the D. F. C."

Next year Congress gave the Cross to Capt. Herman Koehl, Major James C. Fitzmaurice and Civilian-Passenger Baron Gunther von Huenefeld, who were rescued by Pilot Balchen after their monoplane Bremen stranded on Greenly Island. Casting aside all pretense of subtlety, Congress then bestowed the Cross in turn on de Pinedo, Coste and Lebrix — all deserving flyers, thinks Writer Allen, but so are a score of others illogically excluded, among them: Balchen, Acosta, Chamberlin, the late Wilmer Stultz, Brock & Schlee, Yancey & Williams, Kingsford-Smith.

Crowning absurdity cited by Writer Allen was the decoration of youthful Capt. Benjamin Mendez who, sent by the Colombian Government to the U. S. to learn to fly, was known at Mitchel Field as "Benny the Gas Boy." He won the Cross for a homeward flight to Bogota "during which Mendez wrecked at least two airplanes and took nearly enough time to have flown around the world."

The damage done, Writer Allen sees but one face-saving way out of the muddle: to redefine the eligibility rules and admit all, military or civilians, who do great things in the air.