Navy 'Black Cats' DFC and AM Group with Cross Service Army AM Award

[starrynights]

Hello everyone, 

I wanted to share a medal grouping and some original paperwork for Navy Aviation Ordnanceman Hughes, who flew with VP-34 during WWII. Nicknamed the "Black Cats", VP-34 was one of the Navy’s premier night-raiders in the Southwest Pacific, flying matte-black PBY Catalinas at mast-head height to hunt Japanese shipping.
 

The most interesting part about the group is that Hughes received two Air Medal awards for specific combat actions just days apart in January 1944, with one of them coming from the Army, a rare cross-service award to see for a Navy aircrew. The Army citation was awarded by HQ Far East Air Force for an action on the night of January 15–16, where Hughes’ crew intercepted an enemy convoy in the Bismarck Sea. Operating in total darkness and under heavy anti-aircraft fire, they scored two direct bomb hits on an 8,000-ton cargo ship, forcing the crew to abandon the vessel. This was preceded by a Navy award on January 11, where his bomber sank an enemy lugger and inflicted serious damage to a tanker.

Hughes would go on to earn four Air Medals in total, as well as a Distinguished Flying Cross in August 1944 for a night strike where he damaged an enemy destroyer escort despite severe antiaircraft fire and sank a Japanese freighter transport "without the use of precision instruments" in the Netherlands East Indies. To round out the group, his unit also received the Presidential Unit Citation for their aggressive anti-shipping attacks from September 1943 to February 1944 in the Bismarck Sea area.