Richard E. Byrd on March 5, 1927. The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. (NSN: 0–7918), United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession as Commanding Officer of the Byrd Antarctic Expedition I, in that on November 28, 1929 he took off in his "Floyd Bennett" from the Expedition's base at Little America, Antarctica and, after a flight made under the most difficult conditions he reached the South Pole on November 29, 1929. After flying some distance beyond this point he returned to his
Harry F. Byrd Corotoman, and Pocahontas. One younger brother was Naval aviator and Polar explorer Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd (1888–1957). His other younger brother, Thomas Bolling Byrd (1890–1968) became an infantry captain during World War I. His uncle Henry De La Warr Flood served in the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress from Appomattox County, Virginia, (1901 to 1921). Another uncle from Appomattox County, Joel West Flood, served as that county's Commonwealth Attorney (1919 to 1932), in the U.S. Congress (beginning in 1932 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Henry St. George Tucker), as a Federal appellate Judge (of