Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)

Colonel James Helms Kasler (May 2, 1926 – April 24, 2014) was a senior officer in the United States Air Force and the only person to be awarded the Air Force Cross three times. The Air Force Cross ranks just below the Medal of Honor as an award for extraordinary heroism in combat.
Kasler was a combat veteran of World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. In Korea, as an F-86 Sabre pilot with the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, he was recognized as an ace, credited with shooting down 6 MiG-15s. Kasler flew a combined 198 combat missions and was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam from August 1966 until March 1973.
He flew a total of 101 combat missions in an F-86E Sabre and scored 6 confirmed air-to-air victories and two more damaged against MiG-15s, becoming among the first jet aces of the Korean War.

Raymond Larry Knight (June 15, 1922 – April 25, 1945) was a United States Army Air Forces officer and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in World War II.

Horace Seaver "Stump" Carswell Jr. (July 18, 1916 – October 26, 1944) was a United States Army major who was killed in action while serving as a member of the Army Air Forces during World War II. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.He is the namesake of Carswell Air Force Base near Fort Worth, Texas, since 1948.

Lonnie R. Moore (13 July 1920 – 10 January 1956) was a United States military aviator who flew 54 combat missions in Martin B-26 Marauders during World War II, and whom became a double jet ace during the Korean War, downing ten MiG-15s and one probable while flying North American F-86 Sabres. He was killed in the crash of a new fighter type at Eglin AFB, Florida, at age 35.

Clarence Reuben Autery (1933–2010) was a major general in the United States Air Force. In 1979, he appeared in the docudrama First Strike, scenes of which were later edited into the television film The Day After. In both films, Autery is portrayed as a SAC commander who is airborne on a command plane during a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. He was also interviewed about his role at SAC in Part One of the 1981 CBS News documentary series "The Defense Of The United States," which also used some of the "First Strike" footage.

Jerome LaMarr Johnson (born September 21, 1935) is a retired four-star admiral of the United States Navy who commanded the United States Second Fleet, Joint Task Force 120, and NATO's Striking Fleet Atlantic from 1988 to 1990. He served as Vice Chief of Naval Operations from 1990 to 1992.
Johnson has endorsed the false conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was rigged to favor Joe Biden and claims that the United States "has taken a hard left turn toward Socialism and a Marxist form of tyrannical government."

Bruce Reynolds Alger (June 12, 1918 – April 13, 2015) was an American politician, real estate agent and developer, and a Republican U.S. representative from Texas, the first to have represented a Dallas district since Reconstruction. He served from 1955 until 1965. Though born in Dallas, Alger was reared in Webster Groves, Missouri, a small suburb of St. Louis.

Richard Condie Sanders (August 19, 1915 – September 20, 1976) was the youngest general officer in the history of the United States Air Force. Born in 1915, in Salt Lake City, Utah, he graduated from the University of Utah in 1937, with a Bachelor of Science degree, and was appointed a second lieutenant, Field Artillery Reserve on September 4, 1936, while still in college. He served on extended active duty from July 28, 1937, to June 30, 1938, and from July 5, 1938, to September 30, 1938. He then enlisted as a flying cadet on October 4, 1938, and, on completion of his training, was commissioned a second lieutenant, Air Reserve, on August 25, 1939. He was called to active duty the next day and was commissioned a second lieutenant, Air Corps, Regular Army, on July 1, 1940.

Major General Salvador Enrique Felices (August 13, 1923 – July 14, 1987) was the first Puerto Rican to reach the rank of major general in the United States Air Force. In 1957, he participated in "Operation Power Flite", the first round-the-world nonstop flight by a jet airplane.

Richard Edward Cavazos (January 31, 1929 – October 29, 2017) was a United States Army 4-star general. He was a Korean War recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross as a first lieutenant and advanced in rank to become the United States Army's first Hispanic four-star general. During the Vietnam War, as a lieutenant colonel, Cavazos was awarded a second Distinguished Service Cross. In 1976, Cavazos became the first Mexican-American to reach the rank of brigadier general in the United States Army. Cavazos served for 33 years, with his final command as head of the United States Army Forces Command. On May 25, 2022, The Naming Commission recommended that Fort Hood be renamed to Fort Cavazos, in recognition of Gen. Cavazos' military service. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the renaming on October 6, 2022. The re-designation as Fort Cavazos occurred on May 9, 2023.