Shortly after the war, Lt. Richard Potter had already separated from the military  and returned home to Texas when he received a letter from the Army Air Corps inviting him to participate in an awards ceremony. The letter arrived as he was departing for the University of Texas and, unfortunately, he didn’t have the time or resources to travel back to Houston to receive the medal.

 “I was on my way to Austin when they notified me,” explained Potter. “I couldn’t get to the base in Houston to pick it up. But I had already gotten the letter and it didn’t make any difference whether I got the medal or not.” 

So, Potter went to college, got a job, married and had children, and never gave another thought about his unclaimed medal. That all changed some 53 years later when Lt. Gen. Phil Ford, 8^th Air Force Commander, presented the medal to a very surprised Potter in front of fellow members of the Gilmer Rotary Club on May 26, 1998. 

The presentation was made possible by Gilmer Rotarian and retired Air Force pilot Steve Dean. Two years ago, he learned from Potter’s wife, Daisy, that her husband had flown in a B-17 bomber, and, Dean said, he discovered through research that Potter hadn’t received his medal. After the paperwork was completed, he was able to work the presentation into a Rotary Club program the day after Memorial Day. 

During the luncheon, at which Lt. Gen. Ford was the keynote speaker, Potter thought he was going to listen to a speech about Air Force downsizing. While discussing the current reduction of forces, Ford noted that the entire Air Force is smaller than Eighth Air Force was at WWII strength, when it had 2,000,000 men and women assigned.

Ford explained to the Rotarians that our Air Force today has 372,000 people, of which 59,000 officers and enlisted are assigned to the 8^th Air Force.” The gist of his talk was, “This is not your father’s Air Force.” 

Following a discussion of the recent changes in our service, the general’s focus turned to the heroics of American flight crews, their tenacity and creativity during life-threatening situations. At the end of his talk, he asked for a show of hands from the veterans in the audience. When most of the listeners raised their hands, he asked how many Air Force veterans were present. To further narrow the field, he asked whether there were any veterans of the “Mighty Eighth.” When only a single hand remained raised, he asked the gentleman to come forward and assist him with a presentation. 

As Mr. Potter joined him at the front of the room, Ford announced, “It’s my pleasure to help right a wrong.” With that, the general surprised Potter by pinning a Distinguished Flying Cross on him while a citation was read praising Potter’s service as a navigator on 33 bombing missions over Germany.

As a member of 8^th Air Force’s 384^th Bomb Group, Potter received the medal for  “extraordinary achievement while serving as navigator in the face of hazards and difficulties inherent to combat on numerous occasions,” the citation said. “1^st Lt. Potter expertly guided the formations to the assigned objective where bombs were released with accuracy and then capably directed the aircraft around heavily defended anti-aircraft areas to England,” continued the citation.

During the presentation, Potter’s wife and two daughters, Laine and Laura, hugged their hero and breathed a sigh of relief that they had kept the surprise a secret. Daisy explained that their daughters had really masked their reasons for visiting from Tyler, Texas, and Cincinnati, Ohio. “We said maybe we could do something together, all four of us, after the meeting,” she said. “It was just one of those things.”

Potter, who served from 1942 until 1945, said the secret was well kept. “I didn’t know about this until now,” he said. “What are we going to do for an encore?”

 Editor's Note: Sadly, just six weeks later, Potter suffered a fatal heart attack while vacationing with his family at South Padre Island, Texas.