AWARDED DFC: 1
CONFLICT/SPACE FLIGHT/EVENT:  WWII
MODEL:  Hellcat

Citation:  1.) The President of the United States takes great pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Lieutenant, Junior Grade, Paul Raymond Watters, United States Naval Reserve, for heroism and extraordinary achievement in aerial flight as Pilot of a Fighter Plane in Fighting Squadron Thirty Three, attached to the U.S.S. Chenango, during operations against enemy Japanese forces in the vicinity of the Ryukyu Islands, April 22, 1945. As twenty-five to thirty hostile planes prepared to take off from an enemy airfield, Lieutenant, Junior Grade, Watters participated in an attack on the formation despite the enemy fighter cover circling overhead and assisted in the destruction of fifteen of the hostile craft. Then engaging the enemy fighters in the air, he shot down one of the Japanese planes, thereby aiding in the prevention of a possible large scale air attack on our Naval and amphibious forces. His devotion to duty was in in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.