AWARDED DFC: 1
CONFLICT/SPACE FLIGHT/EVENT:  Desert Storm
MODEL:  F-111F

Citation:  1.) The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to First Lieutenant Richard I. McCool for heroism while participating in aerial flight as an F-111F Aircraft Commander in Southeast Iraq 22 February 1991. On that date, Lieutenant McCool was part of a two-ship assigned to kill tanks belonging to Iraq's Elite Republican Guard. After two passes in the eastern edge of his assigned kill box resulted in his GBU-12, Laser Bombs destroying only a building and a truck park, he elected to attack the much more heavily defended crack Hammurabi Division, dug in near Ar Rumayla Airfield. On two subsequent attacks he received heavy antiaircraft artillery fire and was nearly hit by an SA-13 Missile. With no regard for his own safety, however, Lieutenant McCool pressed his attacks and maintained a stable platform that allowed two direct hits, destroying two and heavily damaging another two Iraqi armored vehicles. The relative ease with which Coalition Ground Forces eventually penetrated Kuwait and Southeast Iraq was a direct result of the success of the F-111F tank killing campaign. The heroism and selfless devotion to duty displayed by Lieutenant McCool reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.