The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 2, 1926, takes pride in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross (Posthumously) to Captain (Air Corps) Donald W. Buckman, U.S. Army Air Corps, for heroism while participating in an aerial flight from March Field, California, to Bakersfield, California, on 12 November 1935. While piloting a C-14 airplane caring three passengers, Capitan Buckman was sized by an excruciating pain in the vicinity of his heart, when he was approximately 50 miles from his destination. Although suffering intensely, Capitan Buckman maintained control of his ship and effected a safe landing at Bakersfield airport, California, where he collapsed and died shortly afterward.