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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:

Lt. Morris was a Radar Officer on a P-61 Black Widow in the European Theater in WWII. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Presidential Unit Citation(for being a crew member of the first U.S. aircraft to shoot down an enemy aircraft in night fighter action in Europe, August,1944). He was also awarded the Air Medal with 4 Bronze and 1 Silver Oak Leaf Cluster. He had 3 kills as part of the 2 man P-61 aircrew.
On Feb.27,1945 on a mission over the Rhine river near Bonn, Germany his aircraft suffered extensive damage due to anti aircraft fire. The pilot, Eugene Axtell, was going to bail out. He tried to contact Lt. Morris but the comm lines were cut. Unwilling to leave his fellow crewman trapped in a burning radar compartment, Lt. Axtell fought his damaged P-61 all the way back to the base in Belgium. After belly landing the aircraft, Axtell and the ground crew had to crowbar the radar compartment door open only to find burned out radar equipment and a shoe.
Axtell never did find out what happened to Lt. Morris, but the pilot went on to fly more missions and on the last days of the war he added two more kills to go with the three he already claimed to become an Ace.
Lt. Morris was forced to bail out of the aircraft due to a fire in the radar compartment and was wounded due to shrapnel and burns. He died in a German prisoner of war hospital due to diptheria before he could be rescued by the approaching Allied forces.