US Marine Awarded Distinguished Flying Cross by Queen

During the same ceremony for Private Norris the Queen also presented Major William Chesarek from the United States Marine Corps with a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), awarded for gallantry in action during operations. He became the first American serviceman to receive a DFC since the Second World War.

Major Chesarek, serving as an exchange officer with 847 Naval Air Squadron, was commanding a Lynx helicopter, providing air cover to the operation. Flying for over five hours, Major Chesarek elected to fly repeated passes at very low level, under heavy small arms fire and at least one near-miss from an RPG, in an attempt to distract and disperse the crowds who were preventing the ground troops returning fire.

He continued this tactic in full knowledge of the tragic loss of his commanding officer and crew in a Lynx over Basra only a few weeks before. Major Chesarek also acted as a Forward Air Controller, successfully designating targets for fixed-wing air support, as well as coordinating low-level passes by the jets to support his own efforts to disperse the crowds, and was judged by the Commander of 20 Armoured Brigade to have played a pivotal role in the safe extraction of the Coalition forces.

Major Chesarek and his crew also landed immediately, despite the huge risks, to evacuate the causalty Private Norris had been treating.

(PHOTO: Major William Chesarek with Private Norris[Picture: Sergeant Mick Howard RLC])