In a decade full of historic achievements in aviation, the crews of the 1926-27 Pan-Am Goodwill flights were the first to receive this award created by President Coolidge. Involving five ships across 22,000 miles in the air, these exceptional Americans delivered messages of good will, aerial collaboration and friendship to our neighbor nations in Central and South America, accomplishing what a few short years before had been decried as impossible. While there are eight aviators in this photo at Bolling Field in Washington, D.C., ten went on this important foreign relations mission. They were:
The New York – Major Herbert Dargue and Lieutenant Ennis Whitehead
The San Antonio – Captain Arthur McDaniel and Lieutenant Charles Robinson
The San Francisco – Captain Ira Eaker and Lieutenant Muir Fairchild
The Detroit – Captain Clinton Woolsey and Lieutenant John Benton
The St. Louis – Lieutenant Bernard Thompson and Lieutenant Leonard Weddington
The Importance of the Obvious 