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“As he made a second pass through the intense flak which filled the sky around him, Captain Boyd’s aircraft received a direct hit by anti-aircraft fire,” according to his citation for the Air Force Cross.

On April 22, 1966, he undertook the mission that would earn him the Air Force Cross, the branch’s second-highest military decoration after the Medal of Honor.

He evaded a pair of missiles and continued his attack before being hit by antiaircraft fire, according to his citation for the Air Force Cross, the service branch’s highest decoration after the Medal of Honor.

For his bravery and self-sacrifice, he was posthumously awarded the Air Force Cross, which, some 30 years later, was upgraded to a more prestigious Medal of Honor.

It’s so important to his surviving Air Force buddies and the Army soldiers he rescued that Pitsenbarger receive this Medal of Honor, an upgrade from the Air Force Cross he initially received, that they spend three decades in pursuit of the distinction.