Some years ago, when NC-4 pilot Walter Hinton was still a spry 90 years old, he paid a visit to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., and was given a tour of the exhibits by a curator. When the group visited the Sea-Air Operations Gallery, they paused briefly at this photograph of the NC-4 crew taken after their momentous Atlantic crossing in 1919. Hinton was asked by the curator why he appeared to be the object of some scrutiny by aircraft commander Navy Lieutenant Commander A. C. Read (far right) and crewmember Coast Guard Lieutenant Elmer Stone, to Hinton’s immediate left. With a twinkle in his eye and a shy grin, Hinton replied that Read had just invited his attention to the fact that he was wearing his Navy wings underneath his campaign ribbon, instead above the ribbon, as prescribed by Navy regulations.
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