This Military Service Page was created/owned by
SSgt Robert Bruce McClelland, Jr.
to remember
Hedlund, Earl Clifford, Lt Gen USAF(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Chappell, Nebraska
Date of Passing Jul 21, 2002
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
He flew P-38 combat missions in the Aleutians and in Europe and was credited with 1 shared aerial victory plus the destruction of 15 enemy aircraft on the ground.
He was shot down and made a POW Apr 18, 1945 but escaped Apr 29 and made it back to allied lines.
He retired from the AF Oct 1, 1973.
(Citation Needed) - SYNOPSIS: Major (Air Corps) Earl Clifford Hedlund (ASN: 0-362396), United States Army Air Forces, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy while serving as Pilot of a P-38 Fighter Airplane in the 79th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Group, EIGHTH Air Force, in aerial combat against enemy forces on 23 August 1944. Major Hedlund's unquestionable valor in aerial combat is in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflects great credit upon himself, the 8th Air Force, and the United States Army Air Forces.
General Orders: Headquarters, U.S. Strategic Forces in Europe, General Orders No. 13 (1945)
Description The plan of the Pacific subseries was determined by the geography, strategy, and the military organization of a theater largely oceanic. Two independent, coordinate commands, one in the Southwest Pacific under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and the other in the Central, South, and North Pacific (Pacific Ocean Areas) under Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, were created early in the war. Except in the South and Southwest Pacific, each conducted its own operations with its own ground, air, and naval forces in widely separated areas. These operations required at first only a relatively small number of troops whose efforts often yielded strategic gains which cannot be measured by the size of the forces involved. Indeed, the nature of the objectivesùsmall islands, coral atolls, and jungle-bound harbors and airstrips, made the employment of large ground forces impossible and highlighted the importance of air and naval operations. Thus, until 1945, the war in the Pacific progressed by a double series of amphibious operations each of which fitted into a strategic pattern developed in Washington.
21 Named Campaigns were recognized in the Asiatic Pacific Theater with Battle Streamers and Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medals.
