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 Captain (Air Corps) John Sharpe Griffith, U.S. Army Air Corps, for heroism while participating in an aerial flight from Wright Field, Ohio, to Indianapolis, Indiana, 22 July 1936. While making a carbon monoxide test flight of a new Army airplane at an altitude of 2,000 feet, the engine burst into flames and smoke. Capitan Griffith, the copilot and the pilot, without though of themselves directed the crew of observers to jump and then by switching gas valves and using extinguishers succeeded in extinguishing the fire, thereby preventing not only possible loss of life but destruction to valuable Government property.