EIGHTH AIR FORCE FIGHTER STATION, England — Smiling as he sits in the cockpit of his P-51’Mustang fighter plane “Miss Janice” just before taking off on a mission, is1st Lt. Morris E. Gallant, former employee of Holliston Mills, Inc., of Norwood.
A member of the hard-hitting 357th Fighter Group of the Eighth Air Force. Lt. Gallant has destroyed a Focke Wulf 190 over Berlin. His group, the 357th, has kayoed 480 Nazi planes in ten months of air fighting, 438 in the air.
Lt. Gallant recently was presented the first Oak Leaf Cluster to his Air Medal, previously awarded. A cluster is equivalent to another medal.
The citation for the flier read:
“For exceptionally meritorious service in aerial flight over enemy-occupied Continental Europe.”
Before he enlisted in the Army Air Forces in 1942, Lt. Gallant was a color mixer for Holliston Mills. He attended Williamstown, Vermont, High School.
(All articles originally published in the Norwood Messenger)
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