Lt Comm Martin Lanni, Lt Michael Paulet, and Flt Lt Lee Turner all received the Air Force Cross for their role in the helicopter rescue of a group of climbers from Ben Nevis in May 2007.
Paulet is the only person to appear in all five of the finished "Card Players" works, which were the subject of a major exhibition at London's Courtauld Institute and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York last year.