Christian Frank Schilt (March 19, 1895 – January 8, 1987) was one of the first Marine Corps aviators and a recipient of the United States highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor. He received the Medal for using his biplane to evacuate wounded Marines under fire in Nicaragua. In addition to his actions in Nicaragua he saw action in World War I, the Haitian and Nicaraguan campaigns, World War II and the Korean War. He retired after nearly 40 years of active service and was promoted to the rank of four-star general at retirement. Early life and education Christian Frank Schilt was born March 19, 1895, in Richland County, Illinois, and after attending Rose Polytechnic Institute in Terre Haute, Indiana, he enlisted in the Marine Corps June 23, 1917. Military career As an enlisted man he served at Ponta Delgada, in the Azores, with the 1st Marine Aeronautical Company, a seaplane squadron assigned to anti-submarine patrol. This was the first organized American air unit of any service to go overseas during World War I. Returning to the United States as a corporal, he entered flight training at the Marine Flying Field, Miami, Florida. He was designated an aviator June 5, 1919, and commissioned a second lieutenant five days later. That October, he began his first tour of expeditionary duty as a member of Squadron "D," Marine Air Forces, 2nd Provisional Brigade, in Santo Domingo. He returned to the United States in February 1920, to enter the Marine Officers Training School, Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. Completing the course in August 1920, he went overseas again the following month, joining squadron "E" of the 1st Provisional Brigade, at Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He was transferred to the 2d Brigade the following March to make an aerial survey and mosaic map of the coast line of the Dominican Republic. After completing that assignment he returned to Quantico in October 1922. Except for service at Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida, from January to July 1923, and completion of a three-month photographic course at the Air Service Technical School, Chanute Field, Illinois, in 1925, Schilt remained at Quantico for the next five years. While attached to that post, he won second place in the Schneider International Seaplane Race at Norfolk, in November 1926, flying a special Curtiss racer at a speed of 231.3 mph (372.2 km/h) over seven laps of a triangular 50 km course. In