AWARDED DFC: 1
CONFLICT/SPACE FLIGHT/EVENT:  WWII
MODEL:  B-29

Citation:  1.) The President of the United States takes great pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to First Lieutenant Theodore Romak for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight on 26 June 1945. These individuals were combat crew members of a B-29 aircraft leading a squadron from a base in the Marianas against the Aichi aircraft plant, Nagoya, Japan. Reaching the assembly area, it was determined that the weather was too unfavorable to assemble a formation, and the decision was made to attack the target individually. Shortly after making landfall, they were attacked by a fighter which damaged their number two and three engines, and these engines were feathered. A few moments later, the number three engine developed an uncontrollable fire, and two enemy fighter planes closed in for the kill. They shot down the interceptors in flames. Approximately fifteen miles off the Japanese coast the fuel cells in the right wing began to explode, and the order was given to abandon the aircraft. A submarine picked up eight of the crew members approximately three-and one-half hours later. The determination of these veterans of repeated assaults against the Japanese homeland to attack the enemy, despite lack of protection from other aircraft, as well as their courageous actions in the face of fire and explosives that were destroying their plane, reflect great credit on themselves and the Army Air Forces.