Marine Corps Maj. William D. Chesarek was born in Newport, RI. He is the first American to receive Great Britain’s Distinguished Flying Cross since World War II. His exploits involved the daring rescue of a wounded British soldier in Iraq. Queen Elizabeth II presented his award at Buckingham Palace.
Tiverton native LTC James Webber Lent, Jr. USMC (Ret) had the distinction of serving three combat tours in Viet Nam, flying three different aircraft with distinctly different missions. During these three tours, Jim flew a total of 842 combat missions and 949 combat hours, an accomplishment surpassed by only a select few US military aviators. […]
Lt. Jeffrey Scharver, USMC (1958-1983) Marine Corps helicopter pilot Jeffrey Scharver was killed in action in Grenada on October 25, 1983. His Cobra was shot down during a rescue of fellow wounded Marine pilots. Scharver, an ROTC graduate of Ohio State University, was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. At OSU, an ROTC classroom has since […]
Born in 1942, Wakefield native Rick Wilson earned the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, two Single Mission Air Medals, a Navy Commendation Medal and 46 mission Air Medals in Vietnam. He flew more than 900 missions in his 13 months of flying in-country, consisting primarily of recon insertions/extractions as well as medevac. He was 2nd […]