Sioux Cityan Wins Honors
Lieut. Pierre L. Alford Given Air Medal in Australia
Somewhere in Australia – Lieut. Gen. George C. Kenney, commander of the allied air forces in the Southeast Pacific area, has awarded the air medal for meritorious achievement to First Lieut.
Pierre L. Alford of Sioux City, who participated in at least 25 operational flights prior to last November.
Lieut. Pierre Leon Alford is a former resident of Macy, Nebraska. His wife, a Methodist hospital nurse, lives at 1901 Pierce Street.
Lieut. Alford was reported early in January to have been seriously wounded in action December 17 “somewhere in the Pacific.” A pursuit pilot, he has been in Australia since February, 1942, in active combat since March 1942 and had seen action in Java and New Guinea.
Mrs. Alford said she had been informed by the adjutant general of the war department some time ago that her husband had recovered and left a hospital and that about three weeks ago she received a cablegram from Lieut. Alford saying that he would “see you soon.” She has had no further word, she said, but assumes he is on his way here.
Lieut. Alford broke into the news last August, when an Associated Press dispatch from Australia listed him among men whose lives had been saved by parachutes and reported that his ‘chute “decided to open after he had fallen 10,000 feet.”
“He has written us since that he purposely didn’t open his parachute until then, “Mrs. Alford said. “Two Zeros were after him.”
Lieut. Alford is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles R. Alford of Macy, where he was employed in the government agency before joining the army air forces in March 1941. He is a graduate of Nebraska State Teachers College at Wayne. Mrs. Alford is the former Mina Hedeen, daughter of Henry Hedeen of Sioux City.
Source: The Sioux City Journal-Tribune, March 8, 1943 (photo included)
