This Military Service Page was created/owned by
SSgt Robert Bruce McClelland, Jr.
to remember
Sonnenberg, Eugene Peter, Col USAF(Ret).
If you knew or served with this Airman and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
He served in the US Navy or Naval Reserve from Nov 21, 1941 until joining the USAAF as an enlisted man Feb 11, 1947. He was commissioned a captain in the USAF Aug 21, 1950 and served in the USAF until retiring Sep 1, 1970.
The location of his remains is unknown.
The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Ensign Eugene Peter Sonnenberg, United States Naval Reserve, for extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Pilot of a carrier-based Navy Dive Bomber of Bombing Fighting Squadron TWO (VBF-2), attached to the U.S.S. HORNET (CV-12), on 20 June 1944, while deployed over the Philippine Sea. In the face of heavy enemy anti-aircraft fire opposition Ensign Sonnenberg pressed home a determined dive bombing attack scoring a hit on a large enemy carrier, thereby assisting materially in its destruction. While retiring from the attack he was engaged by two enemy fighters for fifteen minutes and by superior airmanship eluded them. His courage and skill were at all times inspiring and in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
General Orders: Commander Fast Carrier Task Force: Serial 0438 (August 20, 1944)
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.