Page 29 - DFCS NEWS MAGAZINE 2020-1

Denny Schoville, Chairman, MNC Support Foundation.
In his remarks, Denny Schoville, Chairman of the MNC Support Foundation, said more than 130 DFC recipients lie at rest in the cemetery. Among them are:
- Marine 2nd Lt. Gerald Coleman, a World War II bomber pilot who went on to a civilian career as a great baseball player and well-known sports announcer in San Diego.
- Navy Commander Charles Southwick, whose actions in suppressing enemy antiaircraft fire over North Vietnam in May 1967, paved the way for a successful air strike on the strategic Thanh Hoa Bridge.
- Army Warrant Officer Richard McCaig, who, while flying a Huey helicopter in February 1969, attacked a Viet Cong assault unit heavily engaged with U.S. tanks, then disregarded the dangerous situation to land his aircraft in the battle zone and medevac a seriously wounded soldier.
Following the ceremony, Sweeney and retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Eugene Alfaro, San Diego Lindbergh Chapter President and Vietnam
veteran, unveiled the Memorial to the applause of the veterans and their
families.
Also participating in the dedication ceremony was Chaplain (Colonel) Rick Blank,
Deputy State Chaplain, California State Guard, who offered the Invocation. Blank is a DFC recipient who flew 248 combat missions with the Air Force’s 366th Fighter Wing out of Danang Air Base. Chaplain (Lieutenant) Gary Monroe, USN, Command Chaplain of Coast Guard District 11, pronounced the Benediction.
Afterward, guests joined DFCS members at the Flying Leatherneck Museum for a reception sponsored by the Flying Leatherneck Historical Foundation that included the cutting of a ceremonial cake topped with a replica of the DFC Medal. General Cardenas was offered the first piece.
It was a commemoration and a celebration. The dedication at Miramar National Cemetery, March 7, of a Memorial to recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross and a celebration of the 100th birthday of one of its oldest living recipients, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert L. Cardenas.
Keynote speaker Dennis A. Schoville, who was awarded the DFC and two Silver
Stars among many other awards for his service as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam,
paused his remarks while some 75 members of the San Diego Lindbergh Chapter and the Inland Empire Chapter of The Distinguished Flying Cross Society, three active duty recipients, and family members rose and sang “Happy Birthday” to Cardenas.
Cardenas’s military career stretched from pre-WWII days through Vietnam and the Cold War. Highlights of his service included bomber runs over Germany, escape from a Swiss internment camp after his plane was shot down, launching Chuck Yeager into supersonic flight, and piloting the “Flying Wing” in a flight down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.
After the ceremony, the General posed for photos by the newly unveiled monument.
Gene Alfaro and Chuck Sweeney do the cake-cutting honors.
General Cardenas standing by the DFC Memorial.
SUMMER 2020 / DFCS News Magazine / 29