Laureled Sons of Dartmouth
Men Cited for Heroism and Meritorious Achievement
I REGRET THAT I HAVEN'T THE CITATIONS for the medals won by Joseph L. Egan Jr. '39 who has been flying a Thunderbolt fighter with the Eighth Air Force in England.
He has received the Air Medal, two Oak Leaf clusters, and the Distinguished Flying Cross. A truly magnificent record.
LIEUTENANT CARSON FLEMING '42, of J Sandwich, N. H., has been awarded the Army Air Medal for a bombing mission in the European Theater. He was reported missing in action on October 4th.
His father, Major General Philip B. Fleming, has received a cable message that Lt. Fleming, bomber pilot, may have brought his plane down safely in enemy territory. (Editor's Note: Lieut. Fleminghas since been reported a prisoner in Germany.)
This message from London relates the story of a tail gunner in another bomber in the sortie. Carson Fleming's bomber was attacked by two Focke Wulfs, the gunner said. One was shot down and the second fired into the Number 2 engine of the bomber which burst into flames. Lieut. Fleming descended several thousand feet with his ship under control, the witness reports. By that time the flames apparently had been extinguished and the attack had ceased.
Lieut. Fleming was employed by a Boston shoe company when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He immediately resigned and enlisted as an aviation cadet and won his wings at Moody Field, Valdosta, Georgia. He went overseas this past summer.
THE AIR TRANSPORT COMMAND is made up of skillful pilots whose cool nerve and expert handling bring the big, overloaded, unarmed transports through ice, storms and over dangerous mountain routes to feed supplies and key personnel to the fighting fronts.
They fight the oceans and the seas, treacherous mountain air currents, ice and snow, and they live under the ever present danger of motor failure to drop them in some inaccessible spot or of a stray enemy plane to blast their unarmed sky freights out of the sky.
Such a pilot is John F. Ohlinger '37, Tuck School '39, who was recently awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. His citation read:
Captain John F. Ohlinger, Air Corps, United States Army. For extraordinary achievement while participating in serial flights from 1 January 1942 through March 1943- As an air transport command pilot, Captain Ohlinger flew more than 1,000 hours in pioneering flights incidental to the establishment of air routes across Africa and the Middle East. During this period, key personnel and large quantities of vital materiel were transported expeditiously over unmapped terrain where landing facilities and navigational aids were practically nonexistent. Despite the fact that unarmed transport airplanes were on many occasions flown over areas where the risk of enemy interference was ever present, the entire assignment was completed without accident or injury. Captain Ohlinger's high devotion to duty, coupled with outstanding airmanship, contributed materially to the .accomplishment of a mission of extreme importance to the war effort of the United Nations, thereby reflecting great credit on himself and the Army Air Forces. Residence at appointment: Toledo, Ohio.
SECOND LIEUTENANT ROBERT B. MURPHY '44 of Louisville, Ky., has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for "extraordinary achievement" while participating in 200 hours of operation flight missions in the Southwest Pacific. Lieutenant General George C. Kenney, commander of the Allied Air Forces in that area, made the presentation.
A navigator in a bomber, Lieutenant Murphy has been overseas since February. He left Dartmouth at the end of his freshman year in 1941.
FOR DARING IN THE SKIES, First Lt. Joseph L. Egan Jr. '39 received the Distinguished Flying Cross in England, where he is a Thunderbolt pilot with the Bth Air Force.
