 Among its pilots was Major Bernard Francis Fisher, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on 10 March 1966 over South Vietnam.In the first action of the Vietnam War that merited the award of the Air Force Cross, Captain Howard Rudolph Cody and his navigator First Lieutenant Atis Karlis Lielmanis both received the award posthumously for extraordinary heroism on 24 November 1963 while flying an A-26 out of Bien Hoa AB on a close air support mission.Two other early recipients of the Air Force Cross were Maj. Carl Berg Mitchell and his navigator, Capt.