The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Captain Joe T. Boyd (MCSN: 0-21780), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight in support of the FIRST Marine Division and the FIRST Marine Aircraft Wing on 5 August 1951. Captain Boyd, while serving as a pilot with the Forward Echelon of a Marine Transport Squadron, flew vitally needed personnel into an improvised dirt strip, located on a river bed in the Chunch-on area of Korea. The enemy was in the area north of the strip. Extreme caution had to be used in approaching the field in order to avoid small arms fire. The weather was such as to require an instrument let-down on an unreliable homer in dangerous mountain terrain. The arrival of the vitally needed personnel greatly improved the defense positions of the FIRST Marine Division. In addition to the above action, Captain Boyd participated in more than 150 other flights in heavily loaded aircraft. Many of these flights were carried out under unusually hazardous conditions, including extremely adverse weather, hazardous mountain terrain, dangerous runways of the advanced airstrips on may occasions covered with mud or ice and snow and over guerrilla infested territory where aircraft had been fired upon and hit. Many of these flights were made into airstrips in extreme forward areas where no aids to navigation or crash facilities existed. The heavy loads of cargo and the adverse weather encountered on these flights required the utmost skill in flight planning and execution, which Captain Boyd accomplished with confidence and skill without regard for personal fatigue or danger. As a result of these flights desperately needed personnel, ammunition, and other supplies reached front line units. Captain Boyd’s alertness, efficient actions and fearless devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.