The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 2, 1926, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Chief Warrant Officer Donald D. Schomp, United States Army, for heroism while participating in aerial flight in combat operations against hostile forces on 21 March 1967. On that day the recovery crew on a CH-47 helicopter commanded by Warrant Officer Schomp received an urgent request for a volunteer recovery crew to extract a downed UH-1 aircraft from an insecure zone on the Republic of Vietnam’s West boundary. The crew volunteered without hesitation and proceeded to Dak To to refuel and then on to the recovery site. Enemy fire was pounding the small ground security force from three quadrants. The downed aircraft was in a 100 foot high jungle on a knoll partly cleared by a bomb crater. The downed aircraft rigging crew slipped in at low level by the UH-1 through the open quadrant and rapidly lashed up the aircraft with sling apparatus. As the lash up was being completed, Warrant Officer Schomp began his approach to the pickup point while lowering a 60 foot long sleeved cable needed to lift off out of the trees. On the first two attempts, Warrant Officer Schomp had to break off the approach because the intense fire threatened the success of the mission. With most of the hot fire sources now spotted, Warrant Officer Schomp estimated that airborne and ground suppressive fire could provide sufficient margin for success for another attempt at hookup. Realizing that the security of the ground force was at stake, and that enemy capabilities were building up in the location of the downed helicopter was not conducive to good defense, Warrant Officer Schomp recognized the pressure for successful action. In the face of fire, he skillfully performed the extended hookup. Upon lifting the load off the ground, he realized that the heavily loaded down gunship was too heavy for the long sling and altitude conditions, and yet he computed that he had very little spare fuel that could be burned off. His coolness under fire combined with his years of flight experience truly paid dividends when he estimated that he could make a momentary lift off and move the downed aircraft enough to allow for better defense and to allow for use of a shorter sling. His estimate, decision and action was instantaneous. Armed helicopters and A-1E aircraft attacked enemy fire sources continuously, fighting for time for Warrant Officer Schomp and his recovery crew. The dense black smoke from the burning jungle posed a severe restriction to visibility for both air and ground crews. After hookup under Warrant Officer Schomp’s skilled control, the helicopter and sling load inched to the new site with rotor power dropping marginally low. Upon arrival on the new spot, Warrant Officer Schomp alerted his gunners to fire that was coming from the east quadrant and gave sling preparation instructions to the flight engineer, while controlling the aircraft in close quarters among the trees and recovering lost power. He directed an immediate re-hook-up with a shorter sling. With the aircraft still critically loaded, he gradually inched out of the zone in the midst of a new fury of hostile fire. Miraculously the effort succeeded without loss of life and the load, was brought back to Dak To with only a minimum of fuel remaining. Throughout the entire effort, the crew of the lift ship demonstrated outstanding dedication to duty, professional knowledge and selfless disregard for their own personal safety in the face of hostile fire. The cool professionalism displayed by Warrant Officer Schomp in the face of a dangerous mission was an inspiration to his comrades and reflects great credit on him, his unit and the United States Army.