The meteoric career of Boyd (Buzz) Wagner, 26-year-old for¨mer Selfridge Field pilot and outstanding hero of the Philippine campaign was climaxed today with official confirmation of his citation for the Distinguished Service Cross and his elevation to the rank of lieuten¨ant colonel in the U. S. Army Air Forces.

Lieut. Col. Wagner, a native of Johnstown, Pa., was stationed at Selfridge Field from July, 1938, to Oct. 27, 1940, when the pursuit squadron to which he was attached was rushed to Ma¨nila to bolster the defenses of that distant U. S. outpost. He was well known to many Mount Clemens residents and was a close friend of Lieut. Thomas B. Summers, former Selfridge Field public relations officer and pilot now stationed in Hawaii.

The official citation for the Distinguished Service Cross, ac¨cording to dispatches received at Selfridge Field this morning, sets forth that Lieut. Col. Wag¨ner, reputedly the youngest fly¨ing officer of such high rank in the U. S. Army, was the first Air Corps pilot officially credit¨ed with having shot down as many as five enemy planes in the Battle of the Pacific. As early in the war as Jan. 15, Col. Wag¨ner was reported to have de¨stroyed 20 Jap planes.

The young flier is the son of j Mr. and Mrs. Boyd M. Wagner of Johnstown, attended the University of Pittsburgh for three years and graduated from both primary and basic Air Corps training schools at Randolph and Kelly Fields, Texas.

It is understood that Col. Wag¨ner is now stationed in Australia with evacuated American air forces preparing for the widen¨ing of the Allied offensive into the Jap-controlled areas. He was j a 2nd Lieut, when first assigned to the local air base and a 1st Lieut, at the time of his assignment to duty in the Islands.