Original Item: Only One Available. Now this is an excellent medal, another candidate that is highly researchable! The medal itself is an Army Air Force Air Medal. The Air Medal (AM) is a military decoration of the United States Armed Forces. It was created in 1942 and is awarded for single acts of heroism or meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight.

The medal is named engraved on the reverse for LEONARD E. THORNTON. Lt. Thornton was a Navigator aboard B-17 41-24541 / Spook which was shot down by enemy aircraft on February 16, 1943. After dropping bombs on the target, Spook left the Group formation to go to the aid of a 306th BG(H) B-17 being attached by a few ME-109s. While circling the damaged B-17 at about 10,000 feet, fifteen ME-109s suddenly appeared. Some members of the 306th BG(H) B-17 then bailed out. Lt Dunnica then started flying a course back to England. Spook was shot down in the English Channel about 20 miles from the English coast. Upon crashing in the cold icy water the B-17 broke into parts. Tail Gunner, Sgt Taylor, went down in the tail section. Waist Gunner, S/Sgt Dew, was last seen floating in high waves. Pilot, Lt Dunnica, failed to get out the Pilot's window and went down with his B-17. Radio Operator, T/Sgt Holland, had been shot and couldn't exit the B-17. Lt Pacey, T/Sgt Tucker and S/Sgt Cascio escaped through the radio hatch and reached an inflated rubber dinghy. They spent about fourteen hours in the dinghy, were strafed three times, flipped over many times in the high waves, and eventually reached the French coast near Brest in the early dark morning. They found a small shoreline hut and slept a short time. About 0600 they saw a distant French House. The French family gave them coffee, bread and a change of clothing and then asked the crewmen to leave since German soldiers were in the area. They were captured a few hours later and transported to a jail in Paris, then to Frankfurt, Germany and POW camps.

While Thornton is not mentioned in the above report, he was recorded as Missing In Action and ultimately in the end he was presumed and listed as Killed in Action. While his remains were never recovered, he is honored on the Tablets of the Missing at the Brittany American Cemetery and Memorial. The Brittany American Cemetery and Memorial is located in Saint-James, Normandy, France, near the northeastern edge of Brittany. It contains the remains of 4,410 of World War II American soldiers, most of whom died in the Normandy and Brittany campaigns of 1944. Along the retaining wall of the memorial terrace are inscribed the names of 498 of the missing. Rosettes mark the names of soldiers whose remains have been identified.

The medal is in wonderful condition but the set itself is incomplete. The items missing from the case are the lapel device and the ribbon device, but finding replacements to complete the display should be easy.

A lovely set ready for further research and display.

358th Bombardment Squadron
The 358th Bombardment Squadron was established in February 1942 as a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber squadron at Pendleton Field, Oregon and assigned to the 303d Bombardment Group. It moved to Gowen Field, Idaho, where it trained under Second Air Force. The squadron deployed to Southern California to fly antisubmarine patrols over the Pacific. The 358th completed training in southwest by August 1942. The ground echelon departed Biggs Field, Texas in August 1942, arriving at Fort Dix on 24 August. It sailed aboard the RMS Queen Mary and arrived in Great Britain on 10 September. The air echelon flew through Kellogg Field, Michigan and Dow Field, Maine before ferrying its planes across the Atlantic.

Due to the haste to move heavy bombers to Europe, the squadron was insufficiently trained for combat and it continued to train in England until it entered combat on 17 November 1942 in a strike against Saint-Nazaire, but returned without striking, having been unable to locate its target. It attacked Saint-Nazaire the following day, although its intended target was La Pallice. Its initial raids were on airfields, railroads and submarine pens in France. As a unit of one of only four Flying Fortress groups in VIII Bomber Command during late 1942 and early 1943, the squadron participated in the development of the tactics that would be used throughout the air campaign against Germany.

In 1943, the squadron began flying missions to Germany, participating in the first attack by American heavy bombers on a target in Germany, a raid on the submarine yards at Wilhelmshaven on 27 January 1943. From that time, it concentrated primarily on strategic bombardment of German industry, marshalling yards, and other strategic targets, including the ball bearing plants at Schweinfurt, shipyards at Bremen and an aircraft engine factory at Hamburg.

On 20 December 1943 one of the squadron's planes, nicknamed the "Jersey Bounce" was hit by flak and lost two engines while attacking the target, causing the Fort to drop behind the formation. Two 20 millimeter cannon shells exploded in the radio compartment, injuring Technical Sergeant Forrest L. Vosler, the radio operator-gunner. The first injuring him in the legs and thighs and the second striking is chest and also nearly blinding him. Sergeant Vosler continued to fire his gun at attacking fighters. He began to lapse in and out of consciousness, but (working by feel) managed to repair the radio so that emergency transmissions could be made. When the B-17 ditched, he managed to climb on the wing unaided and assist the badly wounded tail gunner until he could be loaded into one of the plane's dinghies. Sergeant Vosler was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions.

The 358th received a Distinguished Unit Citation when adverse weather on 11 January 1944 prevented its fighter cover from joining the group, exposing it to continuous attacks by Luftwaffe fighters. Despite this opposition, the unit successfully struck an aircraft assembly plant at Oschersleben.

Although a strategic bombing unit, the squadron was diverted on occasion to close air support and interdiction for ground forces. It attacked gun emplacements and bridges in the Pas-de-Calais during Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, in June 1944; bombed enemy troops during Operation Cobra, the breakout at Saint Lo, and during the Battle of the Bulge. It bombed military installations near Wesel during Operation Lumberjack, the Allied assault across the Rhine. Its last combat mission was an attack on 25 April 1945 against an armament factory at Pilsen (now Plzeň).

Following VE Day in May 1945 the 303d Group was reassigned to the North African Division, Air Transport Command and moved to Casablanca Airfield, French Morocco to use its B-17 bombers as transports, ferrying personnel from France to Morocco. However, the two B-17 groups moved to Casablanca proved surplus to Air Transport Command's needs and the squadron was inactivated in late July 1945 and its planes ferried back to the United States.