The Airman's Cross (Dutch: Vliegerkruis) is an important military decoration of the Kingdom of the Netherlands created in 1941. The cross is meant for those Dutch military, who displayed during one of more flights in an aircraft, initiative, courage and perseverance against the enemy or during hostile actions. The cross is also awarded to allied pilots, whose actions or performances in the air were of high importance for the Netherlands.
Till 2007 in total of 735 Airman's Crosses are awarded, most recently to a F-16 pilot, Air Force Major M. Duivesteijn. This because of his "exceptional courage and perseverance" at a flight above former Yugoslavia within the framework of NATO Operation Allied Force in 1999. Well-known recipient are also Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema, the "Soldier of Orange", and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.
The Airman's Cross is the fifth highest military decoration still being awarded for bravery and has precedence after the Cross of Merit.
Famous quotes containing the words airman and/or cross:
“The current flows fast and furious. It issues in a spate of words from the loudspeakers and the politicians. Every day they tell us that we are a free people fighting to defend freedom. That is the current that has whirled the young airman up into the sky and keeps him circulating there among the clouds. Down here, with a roof to cover us and a gasmask handy, it is our business to puncture gasbags and discover the seeds of truth.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“I’d take off all my clothes
& cross the damp cold lawn & down the bluff
into the terrible water & walk forever
under it out toward the island.”
—John Berryman (1914–1972)