First Lieutenant Richard W. Doust, USMCR was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on July 25th, 1969 for heroism on February 23rd 1969.

Lt Doust was co-pilot of a CH-46D helicopter from Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 263 on a night medical evacuation mission in Quang Nam Province in the Republic of Vietnam. The landing zone they were sent to was only 30 feet wide and was surrounded by tall trees. A previous attempt to extract the wounded from this zone was aborted due to heavy enemy fire. On approach to the landing zone they encountered a heavy volume of automatic weapons fire from enemy forces. Using their airmanship skills they landed and evacuated the nine wounded Marines from the landing zone, and flew the helicopter to the First Medical Battalion hospital west of the city of Danang. Shortly after landing and offloading the wounded, the helicopter's heavily damaged rotor head and transmission seized from loss of lubricating oil, and the blades came to an abrupt halt.

Lt Doust went on to earn the Combat Action Ribbon, and the Air Medal with Bronze Star for other Vietnam War combat, flying operations.

After leaving the Marine Corps he continued in the Aviation Field with Pyramid Airlines in Egypt, International Aviation Development Company in Malta, and with World Airways in California and Yemen.

He was a founder of Cirrus Capital, a commercial aircraft leasing firm, and a principal in Pegasus Aviation. He finished his aviation career, after 31 years, in 1998.