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 Bernard G. Parks, United States Army Air Forces, for heroism and extraordinary achievement while participating in glider flights during the period 17 September to 20 September 1944. These officers served as aerial leaders of Troop Carrier glider formations, which participated in the vertical envelopment of enemy positions in Holland, in the greatest airborne assault in military history. With heroic disdain for the hazards of intense enemy ground fire and the risk of attack from hostile aircraft intent on impending the operation, and at times flying through weather which taxed their skill and resourcefulness to the utmost, they led their formations of unarmed and unarmored gliders to their objectives with unerring precision. The successful delivery of airborne troops and critical combat equipment and supplies by Troop Carrier gliders in these operations, in amount to theretofore unprecedented, may be attributed to their peerless leadership and unswerving devotion to duty and reflects the highest credit upon them and upon the Armed Forces of the United States.