Page 7 - DFCS News Magazine Spring 2013

By Chuck Sweeney
Medley Gatewood, who joined the DFC Society in September at the urging of DFCS Director Bob Krone, has found a way to provide publicity for both the DFCS and our great book “On Heroic Wings: Stories of the Distinguished Flying Cross”. He donated a copy of the book to his local library in Flora, Illinois and they not only brought it into the system for residents to read but, put it on display which pub- licized both the book and the DFC Society itself.
Medley is a Life member of the DFC Society and was awarded three DFCs in Vietnam. He is also theEditor of the Super Sabre Society's magazine, THE INTAKE and helped publicize our convention in Seattle, as well as our book and the DFC Society. We would like to recipro- cate by suggesting that any of our members who flew the F-100 Super Sabre join the Super Sabre Society at: http://www.supersabresociety.com/ .
We would really like more of our members to follow Medley’s lead and donate a book to your local library and/or a military/aviation mu- seum and ask that they display it in a similar way. Local ROTC or JROTC units would also be thrilled to receive a copy of the book which could hopefully be parlayed into some publicity for the DFCS and might attract some new members.
The right side of the display is the book review that I wrote for the Winter 2012 edition of the DFCS News Magazine. The book review can be downloaded from our website at www.dfcsociety.net
The following is the left side of the display which the library wrote (with one minor edit):
GATEWOOD PRESENTS BOOK TO LIBRARY ON DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSS RECIPIENTS
Flora Public Library recently received the donation of the beautiful book, “On Heroic Wings: Stories of the Distin- guished Flying Cross,” by Barry Lanman and Laura Wendling. The book features the painting “Distinguished Flying Cross” by renowned artist Ruth Mayer as well as a Foreword by President George H. W. Bush and Intro- duction by Jim Lovell, who are both DFC recipients. Included in the heart of the book is the history of the DFC, stories of recipients by wars and eras and an overview of the Distin- guished Flying Cross Society.
A separate booklet has a sup- plemental listing of DFCS mem- bers as of Jan. 12, 2012.
Robert Medley Gatewood, who is a native of Flora, has the dis- tinction of being a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross. Mr. Gatewood donated the book with the following inscription:
To: FLORA PUBLIC LIBRARY, 12/12/2012. That local citizens may have a better un- derstanding and appreciation of those veterans from all generations who served our nation in the air. From: Robert Medley Gatewood, Flora Township High School, Class of 1957, Lt. Col. USAF (Ret.), Life Member- Distinguished Flying Cross Society.
The most unique family story is that of a husband and wife both being awarded the DFC as A-10 pilots. Exceptional photographs thataccompanythestoriesbringtheDFCrecipientsandtheiraccomplishmentstolife. Thebookhasbeenprocessedandisnow available for checkout at the library. To find out more information about the Distinguished Flying Cross Society and its members, visit www.dfcsociety.net.
Page 7 The Distinguished Flying Cross News