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 First Lieutenant (Air Corps) Carl B. Eielson, U.S. Army Air Corps (Reserve), for extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight. Lieutenant Eielson as pilot, accompanied Capitan George H. Wilkins (an English subject) from Point Barrow, Alaska, to Dead Man’s Island, Archipelago of Spitzbergen, on 15 – 16 April 1928, without stop, a distance of more than 2,200 miles. The severity of the weather, the storm area through which they passed with no hope of outside aid in case of a forced landing, and the complete success of the enterprise distinguished this as one of the most extraordinary aerial accomplishments of history.