OUR NEIGHBORS in the SERVICE.
Peterson, Ia.—P-51 Mustang Pilot First Lt. Lawrence A. Westphal has been awarded the air medal for “meritorious achievement” while shepherding B-17 Flying Fortresses en route to Eighth air force targets in Germany. Lt. Westphal flies with the 357th fighter group, which has received a presidential citation for destroying 56 ½ German planes in the air and on the ground in a single day near Berlin. The group is a unit of the Third air division, the division cited by the president for its England-Africa shuttle-bombing of Messerschmitt aircraft at plants at Regensburg, Germany. The P-51 Mustang pilot, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Westphal, is a graduate of the Brooke consolidated school here.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, April 18, 1945
