Born: January 11, 1922 First Lieutenant, United States Army Air Forces Service# 19061216 / O-730523
PILOT, NORTH AMERICAN P-51B MUSTANG
353RD FIGHTER SQUADRON, 354TH FIGHTER GROUP, NINTH AIR FORCE
Date of Enlistment: January 22, 1942 Home or Place of Enlistment: Boise, Idaho Died: December 20, 1943
Killed in Action while conducting combat operations against Nazi Germany during World War II.
The 353RD FIGHTER SQUADRON, 354TH FIGHTER GROUP is awarded the
FRENCH CROIX DE GUERRE WITH PALM
awarded under Decision No. 332, 17 September 1946, by the President of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, with the following citation:
A remarkable combat unit, distinguished for its courage, its combat zeal, and its extraordinary endurance. It has to its credit more than 1,000 enemy planes destroyed or damaged. From the time it reached the line, on 1 December 1943, until 31 December 1944, it distinguished itself by its brilliant feats of arms. It furnished efficient and incessant air cover for the troops which landed in Normandy and advanced victoriously into central France by making 519 sorties, in spite of difficulty in supply and repair. It escorted bombers to Germany over great distances, destroying during the course of these raids, 324 enemy planes. In a bitter struggle, conducted often in the ratio of 10 to 1, it shot down 51 and 39 enemy planes, respectively, in the skies of France on 25 August 1944 and 12 September 1944. While on missions to machine-gun and bomb military objectives, it caused the additional destruction of 560 military transports, 490 locomotives, 1,120 cars, 14 bridges and 609 factories and military buildings. It greatly contributed to the collapse of the enemy forces and to the liberation of French soil.