Herbert Dargue

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Major-General Herbert "Bert" Arthur Dargue (November 17, 1886 - in Brooklyn, New York - December 12, 1941 in California) was the first recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Dargue had a lengthy career as a military aviator; on December 16, 1914, he participated in the first military communication by radio while in flight, and in 1926, he aided in drafting the legislation that became the Air Corps Act, which led to the establishment of the United States Army Air Corps [1].

In the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Henry Stimson chose Dargue to lead the investigation of why the United States had been unprepared for the attack, and placed him in command of the US Army units there; however, while flying to Hawaii to take his new post, Dargue crashed in the Sierra Nevada mountains, outside Bishop, California, and was killed.