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 Private First Class Raymond U. Whitney, U.S. Army Air Corps, for heroism while participating in aerial flights as Laboratory Technician, Detachment, Medical Department, United States Army. Over a period of more than two years Private First Class Whitney, with complete disregard of his personal safety, voluntarily permitted himself to be subjected to repeated experiments to determine the effects on the human body of prolonged exposure to high altitudes and great pressures. Later, despite a history of failures and fatalities in high level operations of aircraft, he repeatedly participated in test flights of an experimental substratosphere cabin airplane, well knowing that failure of the cabin of the airplane during flight would have been fatal. By his courageous participation in these experiments, Private First Class Whitney contributed greatly to the advancement of aviation medicine and military aviation.