First Lieutenant Bernard W Bail, Air Corps, Army of the United States: For extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations on 5 June 1944, while serving as the Group mission’s Lead Radar Navigator on a heavy bombardment attack against defended enemy coastal positions in the vicinity of Boulogno-Sur-Mer, France, in preparation of the invasion on 6 June 1944. As he approached the target, Lieutenant Bail’s aircraft was hit repeatedly and severely by enemy anti-aircraft fire which seriously crippled the ship, knocking out three engines and causing the remaining engine to be cut off, killed the pilot, and wounded several members of the crew including the Command Pilot who’s foot was severed. The co-pilot set a course for England while the aircraft rapidly lost altitude. While over the English Channel, Lieutenant Bail applied a tourniquet to the leg of the Command Pilot and the crew was ordered to bail out. He remained with the Command Pilot, who had sufficiently recovered from shock to reach the aircraft’s steering yoke, and turn it around from its inland course and head it back to ditch in the English Channel. This extraordinary act of heroism enabled the Command Pilot to steer the aircraft away from an English village preventing further loss of life. Lieutenant Bail’s valiant and unselfish efforts, above and beyond the call of duty and at great risk to himself, reflect great credit upon himself, the Air Corps, and the united States Army.

The DSC was presented to him by Vice President Dick Chenney on February 24, 2006 at the White House. The reason for the late presentation was because the paperwork was lost when the Command Pilot, who Bernard saved, was killed when the plane went down while he was returning to the states for additional medical treatment. Bernard continued to fly until he was shot down on his twenty-fifth mission in March, 1945 over Germany and became a POW.