AWARDED DFC: 1
CONFLICT/SPACE FLIGHT/EVENT:  -
MODEL:  B-17

Citation:  1.) The President of the United States takes great pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Staff Sergeant Zane A. Gemmill for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight in the European and North African Theatres of Operations as Radio Operator on a B-17 type aircraft. On 8 January 1943, while on a high altitude mission over Bizerte, both waist gunners collapsed from anoxia when their oxygen masks froze in the intense cold. Removing his own mask, Sergeant Gemmill made two separate trips to carry his unconscious comrades to safety. Expertly reviving them, he enabled them to return to their posts, and to assist in dispersing repeated attacks by enemy fighters. On all of his combat missions, Sergeant Gemmill's coolness, efficiency, and unfailing devotion to duty have reflected great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of the United States.