USAAF Pilots Lt George Welch and Lt Kenneth Taylor are each presented with the Distinguished Service Cross for their actions during the Dec 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the medal ceremony was at Wheeler Army Airfield on Jan 9, 1942
The night of Dec 6, 1941, Welch & Taylor attended a Christmas dinner and dance party at a rooftop hotel in Waikiki, that ended in an all-night poker game, they did not go to sleep until 6:30am the morning of Dec 7th. Both were awakened less than an hour and a half later at 7:55am by the sound of low-flying planes, machine-gun fire, and explosions.
Both were still wearing their tuxedos from the previous night, without orders Welch telephoned the auxiliary Haleiwa Fighter Strip on Oahu's North Shore to have two Curtiss P-40B Tomahawk fighters prepared for takeoff. Taylor drove them in his Buick at high speed to the airfield. While climbing into their P-40s, the crew chiefs informed them that they should park & disperse their planes. "To hell with that", Welch said.
Taking off with only .30-cal ammunition in the wing guns, they attacked a group of Aichi D3A “Val” dive bombers downing some of them. When both pilots ran out of ammunition, they headed for Wheeler Field to reload with .50-cal ammunition, since Haleiwa did not have any, as they landed around 8:40am, they had to avoid friendly anti-aircraft fire.
Once on the ground, several officers told Taylor & Welch to leave the airplanes, but the two pilots were able to convince the officers into allowing them to keep fighting.
Welch's P-40 was reloaded first, and as he started to taxi Japanese Dive Bombers begun staffing the airfield, the ground crew who were loading Taylor's plane left the ammunition boxes on the wings as they scattered to get away from the bombers. Taylor quickly accelerated with the ammunition boxes falling off of his wings. Both pilots realized that if they took off away from the incoming aircraft they would become targets once they were airborne, so both headed directly towards the dive bombers, at take-off they immediately started firing on the Japanese aircraft.
After running out of ammunition they landed at Haleiwa and began driving back to Wheeler, Taylor and Welch passed by their squadron commander, Major Gordon H. Austin, who noticed that they were wearing their tuxedo attire. Unaware of their earlier exploits, he shouted at the two men "Get back to Haleiwa! You know there's a war on?" The two pilots explained what they had done, and the Major thanked them.
Army Air Corps records credit Welch with four Japanese planes downed and Taylor with two planes downed during the Pearl Harbor Attack
LIFE Magazine Archives - Bob Landry Photographer