The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross (Posthumously) to Lieutenant Commander Robert Reinhart Butler, United States Naval Reserve, for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight leading a fighter sweep over Iwo Jima during World War II. Lieutenant Commander Butler attacked two groups of intercepting aircraft and, despite the hazards of a low ceiling, personally accounted for three of the 33 planes destroyed by his flight. In a fighter-bomber mission over the same area later, he assisted in destroying 33 Japanese fighters in combat and approximately 40 on the ground.