Army Veteran Receives His Medals, 70 Years After Enlisting reports PinsYourWay.com

Six Medals For World War II Air Corps Service Finally Catch Up With Pennsylvania Man

San Francisco, CA (prHWY.com) November 10, 2012 - San Francisco, CA- In Pittston, Pennsylvania, Army veteran Louis Roman recently received a total of six military decorations, presented by his Congressman, Rep. Lou Barletta. The October 26 ceremony was well-deserved, but came just a little bit late -- exactly 70 years to the day of Roman's enlistment in the Army Air Corps during World War II.

The medals Roman received for service as a flight engineer and turret gunner on 19 bombing missions over Germany included an Air Medal with two Bronze Stars, the American Campaign Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with three Bronze Stars, the Honorable Service Lapel Pin (popularly known as the "ruptured duck") and the World War II Victory Medal.

The belatedly honored Pittston native had enlisted as an Army airman in October 1942 as a 19-year-old. To do so, he took a train to Wilkes-Barre, after finishing his 7pm-to-7am shift as a cab driver.

At first, Roman may have wondered if he would ever get a combat assignment. The Army seemed to have a great deal of difficulty figuring out what to do with the young volunteer. First it sent him to Mississippi for training as a mechanic, then dispatched him to a Ford plant in Michigan building B-24 heavy bombers. Next he found himself shipped off to a bomb squadron in Kansas, then it was off to gunnery school in Texas to get up to speed on the 50-caliber machinegun. A stint as a gunnery instructor in New Mexico soon followed.

When he eventually got overseas, he was first posted to Scotland - where an Army supervisor discovered that, with all the shuttling back and forth and more than a year's worth of mechanical and gunnery training, Roman had never been assigned to basic training. After it was decided to overlook that lapse, in 1943, Roman was finally sent to France as a flight crewman.

He was pulled off his first scheduled mission, a B-26 bombing run, replaced by a more seasoned tent mate. That mission never returned; the entire crew was killed. Roman worked on B-24 crews, and made it through a few tense episodes, including a touch-and-go landing with one of his plane's twin engines out, and encounters with German fighter planes. After 37 months on duty, his discharge came through near the end of 1945.

The 89-year-old veteran, now in declining health, was accompanied to the ceremony by one of his four children. His wife of 46 years, whom he met while driving his cab after returning to the States, died in 1993.

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