9/30/2006 4:00:00 AM Long overdue Air Force pilot receives award 64 years late
By SHARI LOPATIN The Daily Courier
His story is something from an old black-and-white movie a war hero rescues the American Chief of Staff during World War II, flies him to safety and lands in Casablanca.
Here's the twist: the military recommends him for the Distinguished Flying Cross, but he doesn't actually receive the medal until 64 years later, in the mail.
That's right.
So much time passed, Thomas Roberts forgot that his old commanding officer, Gen. Paul Tibbets who dropped the Hiroshima bomb recommended him for one of the most prestigious medals in the Air Force. Only a few months ago, while talking to a records employee of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, did this 88-year-old retired pilot realize he could still obtain his Cross.
He filled out some papers and received a notice from the National Personnel Records Center stating he will get his Distinguished Flying Cross in the mail.
"It was spooky," Roberts said of when he got the medal. "I was really surprised. I was happy to get it. I just forgot all about it."
Sitting in his Prescott home filled with hanging planes and aeronautical clocks, Roberts' daughter, Lynda Roberts, broke down crying.
"I'm just so happy for him," Lynda said. "He's had a wonderful, exciting flying life."
She's very proud of her father and admires his "gumption" to just do what he needed to. She said everyone in the family calls him "fly boy."
They have good reason to as well. During the North African Campaign in 1942, Roberts was escorting a French civilian, General Lyman Lemnitzer, and Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle in a B-17 aircraft to Casablanca for a meeting with General Dwight D. Eisenhower. They were flying with 25 other airplanes.
However, during the flight, Robert's hydraulic system failed and he lost the plane's brakes. He couldn't escort his passengers until the next day, therefore isolating his plane from the squadron.
When they took off the next morning, Roberts spotted four JU-88s, or twin-engine German planes.
"Everybody was eating their lunch, and here I see (the German planes) fly under us," Roberts recalled. "They attacked us. We shot down two of them and damaged the third. The last time I saw anything, this (last) one was flying back to France."
He safely took the three men to Casablanca.
The second heroic mission took place when Roberts went to Gibraltar, also in 1942.
"This happened when we were bombing Tunisia. One time, my flight suit went out."
He said the plane was flying at an altitude of about 33,000 feet. At that height, Roberts said the temperature can reach minus-40 degrees.
Flying in a squadron of 25 planes, Roberts said he entered territory heavily populated with German fighters. If one plane strayed from the squadron, the Germans would attack the straggler.
Roberts began to freeze without his warm flight suit, but he refused to tell the pilot for fear they'd turn back and not complete the mission.
"If we'd have left formation, we probably wouldn't be sitting here right now," Roberts said.
After they grounded, Roberts went to a hospital with frostbite.
These acts of bravery prompted Tibbets to recommend Roberts for the Distinguished Flying Cross. However, before Tibbets could sign the papers, he disappeared one night. Roberts later found out the Americans shipped him back home to train for dropping the Hiroshima bomb.
The man who took Tibbet's place was planning on signing the papers for Roberts until he was shot down. After that, Roberts didn't hear anything else.
The recent notice from the National Personnel Records Center said Roberts' papers may have been destroyed in the great St. Louis Fire in 1973, affecting military records from 1912 through 1959.
Luckily, through other resources, the military was able to confirm Roberts' entitlement to his Cross. Roberts simply misses flying.
"I just like to be up and be free like a bird," he said.
