WWII veteran receives Distinguished Flying Cross

  • Published
  • By John Cochran
  • 377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
Kirtland Air Force Base, NM --  An Army Air Corps veteran of World War II received formal recognition of his combat heroism in a Dec. 29 ceremony at Kirtland Air Force Base.

Sixty-six years after his actions in the sky over Berlin, Germany, 2nd Lt. Robert L. Giles accepted the Distinguished Flying Cross from Col. Fred Hartwig, commander of the New Mexico Air National Guard's 150th Wing.

On April 18, 1944, Lieutenant Giles, a B-17 navigator on his fifth combat mission, saved the life of a crewmate who had been severely wounded in both knees and one arm by gunfire from a German fighter aircraft.

Despite sustaining a broken arm, Lieutenant Giles helped the bombardier to the nose escape hatch of the burning, out-of-control aircraft and fastened a parachute onto his harness. The young officer then attached his own parachute and bailed out of the disabled bomber with his fellow aviator. Upon landing, both soldiers were captured and became prisoners of war until being liberated in May 1945.

Lieutenant Giles was modest about receiving the recognition.

"I never thought that I did anything that any person wouldn't have done under the same circumstances," he said.

The DFC is awarded to any officer or enlisted person of the Armed Forces of the United States who shall have distinguished himself or herself in actual combat in support of operations by heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight, subsequent to November 11, 1918.

On April 6, 2010, Lieutenant Giles received the Air Medal in a ceremony here also presided over by Col. Hartwig. His other awards and decorations include the Purple Heart, Prisoner of War Medal, American Campaign Medal, European-African Middle-Eastern Campaign Medal with one Bronze Star, and the World War II Victory Medal.