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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:

The Distinguished Flying Cross was awarded to me as a result of a flight as a navigator on a B-17 flying from Milne Bay on the southern tip of New Guinea to the Buka-Bougainville Islands wherein I spotted the Japanese fleet which was hiding in the Buin-Faisi Islands on the southern tip of Bougainville Island. This fleet was massed to retake Guadalcanal. There were so many ships in the fleet that I broke radio silence and radioed the size and composition of the fleet to headquarters in Port Moresby.

As we were flying over the fleet taking pictures, the ball turret gunner counted the Japanese fighter aircraft taking off in pursuit of our B-17. The fighters finally caught up with us at approximately 32,000 feet and I shot down three fighters as they were making frontal attacks, thereby saving our aircraft and making it possible for us to escape before other fighters could get to us.