Donald D. Stevens

The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Air Force Cross to Donald D. Stevens, Captain, U.S. Air Force, for extraordinary heroism in military operations against an opposing armed force as Pilot of an O-2 Aircraft and a Forward Air Controller in Southeast Asia on 19 August 1967. On that date, Captain Stevens braved continuous hostile automatic weapons and antiaircraft fire for more than eight hours to rescue a wounded American soldier. Captain Stevens made repeated low passes directly into the heavy hostile fire to locate the wounded man and to direct medical evacuation helicopters to the area. Despite sustaining a hit in his unarmed observation aircraft, Captain Stevens persevered in his rescue attempt and finally succeeded in securing the save extraction of the wounded soldier and the reaction team that had gone to help him. Through his extraordinary heroism, superb airmanship, and aggressiveness in the face of hostile forces, Captain Stevens reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.