Heaven and hell...

A few days ago, reading some materials at Dacoromanica.ro - Romania's Digital Library, I found some old editions of the Monitorul Oficial - Romania's Governmental Official Journal. In one of them (year CXII, no. 251), dating from October 29th, 1944, I found the text of the royal decree in which, among other war heroes, lt. av. Dobran Ioan has been awarded The Air Force Order, with swords, Gold Cross with first and second bars (Ordinul Virtutea Aeronautica, cu spade, Crucea de Aur cu prima şi a doua baretă)...

This is the first page of the October 29th, 1944 Monitorul Oficial:

And the preamble of that particular decree... An approximate translation would be: Michael the First, King of Romania by the grace of God and the national will, To all present and to the future ones, health to you all: To the report of Our minister secretary of State of the War Department, by no. 135, 1944; Taking into consideration the royal decrees no. 2,895 from July 31st, 1930 and no. 536 from February 28th, 1931, by which The Air Force Virtue Order, with swords, is established and granted, We have decreed and decree:

1st Article. We grant The Air Force Virtue Order, with swords, classes being indicated below, to the following officers, NCOs and ground personnel from the Royal Air Force:

At page 5, under the Air Force Virtue Order, with swords, Gold Cross with first and second bars, we can find lt. av. Dobran Ioan:

The decree (no. 1,821) was signed by the king at October 6th, 1944. Army corps general Mihail Racoviţă was the War minister.

Funny thing is Dobran never mentioned this award in his war diary - Lt. Dobran's war diary (Jurnalul locotenentului Dobran), neither on October 6th (less probable to know about it, since it was the date the king signed the decree), or on October 29th - because Dobran was too busy being... punished!!! For commiting a stupid accident on September 13th, 1944..., when lt. av. Dobran, under the worst weather conditions, being ordered to take off in a Fw-58 (captured from the Germans), in a reconnaissance mission, overshot the muddy runway and failed to take-off, killing two people and wounding eight.

In his diary, on October 24-25-26th, 1944, Dobran mentions that his former commander, Constantin Cantacuzino, of the 9th Fighter Group, summoned at Bucharest, was struggling hard to get Dobran a promotion for the Michael The Brave (Mihai Viteazul) Order - Romania's highest war order. On October 27-28-29-30th, 1944, Dobran writes that he not only didn't receive the Michael The Brave Order, but, instead, he gets punished for the accident: 30 days of arrest, 4 months of flying suspension, dismissal from the office as leader of the 48th Fighter Squadron, and returning to base...

Through the intervention of his former commander, Cantacuzino, Dobran is promised, on November 2nd, 1944, by the Chief of Staff of the Royal Romanian Air Force, gen. Ramiro Enescu, who came to the airfield in a front inspection, that he won't be held responsible for the accident...