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Major gets British Distinguished Flying Cross

England’s Queen Elizabeth II awarded the British Distinguished Flying Cross to a U.S. pilot for the first time since World War II during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London on March 21, according to a Corps release.

Marine Maj. William Chesarek was serving as an exchange officer with England’s 847 Naval Air Squadron in Amarah, Iraq, last year when British forces on the ground came under “repeated attack from rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire from insurgents using large, hostile crowds for cover,” the release said.

Chesarek spent five hours flying overhead in a British Lynx helicopter identifying targets and covering the British troops on the ground, the release said.

“Given the serious threat to the forces on the ground, and the inability to return fire given the crowds of protesters, Chesarek elected to fly repeated passes at very low level, under heavy small-arms fire and at least one near-miss from an RPG, in an attempt to distract and disperse the crowds,” according to the release.

Chesarek is currently the weapons and tactics instructor for the squadron.