Former Army Air Corps SSgt. Roy E. Talbott, 84, received a Purple Heart earlier this week during a ceremony at the Taj Mahal at Randolph AFB, Tex., for injuries he sustained during an attack by Japanese fighter planes in the Pacific Theater during World War II, reports Robert Goetz. Talbott, who was a B-24 gunner with the 5th Bomb Group, and the rest of the crew were returning to Los Negros Island after a May 1944 bombing mission when they were attacked. Their bomber crash-landed on a dirt runway at New Guinea. His daughter, Army Col. Donna Talbott, worked with the Air Force Personnel Center and the Military Order of the Purple Heart to arrange the award.
The U.S. military is maintaining a beefed-up presence in the Middle East, including fighters and air defense assets, following the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities June 22 and subsequent retaliation by the Iranians against Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
