Duane J Young

AIR MEDAL

Sergeant Duane J. Young, 21, of 233 1/2 West Columbia Street, Chippewa Falls, WI, a radio operator gunner on a Fifteenth Army Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress, has been awarded the Air Medal for "meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight."

Sergeant Young entered the Armed Forces on November 6, 1942 and began his tour of foreign duty on August 6, 1944.

He is a graduate of Chippewa Falls High School and was a salesman prior to his entrance into the Armed Forces. His wife, Kathleen J. Young, resides at 538 McDonough Street, Eau Claire, WI.

Fortress Radio Operator Missing

T/SGT. DUANE YOUNG
Technical Sergeant Duane Young, son of Mr. and Mrs. Howard Young, Chippewa Falls, has been reported missing over Austria on February 7, according to a War Department telegram received Friday morning by his wife, Kathleen, who resides at 538 McDonough Street.

He went overseas in August 1944 and was based in Italy as a B-17 radio operator. Sergeant Young entered the service in November 1942 and received his training at Scott Field, IL; Fort Myers, FL; and Drew Field, FL.

2 City Men Are Liberated from German Prisons

A cablegram was received Saturday morning from Lieutenant La June F. Wilk, son of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Wilk, 1119 Second Avenue, informing them that he had been liberated from a German prisoner of war camp and "will be home soon."

Lieutenant Wilk, U.S. Army Air Corps, was co-pilot on a bomber raiding points in Germany from its Italian base, when it was shot down on February 22, 1944. He had been in Italy since Thanksgiving Day 1943.

He entered the service in 1941 and received his training at Randolph Field, Texas. He received his commission at Brooks Field, TX and, before going overseas was stationed at Marsh Field, Texas.

Mrs. Duane J. Young, 538 McDonough Street, received word on May 22 from the War Department that her husband, Technical Sergeant Young, who was reported missing in action on February 7, has been a prisoner of war of the Germans, and it is assumed that he now returned to military control.