LTC ROBERT D. WALLACE, (then Captain) Air Corps, United States Army. For extraordinary heroism in action over Miri, Borneo, on 8 December 1944. Captain Wallace volunteered to bomb the Lutong Oil Refinery in Borneo, a round trip of approximately two thousand miles requiring twelve hoursí flying time. He took off from Morotai in a heavy bomber, and arriving at the refinery made his bombing run at an altitude of one hundred feet, through heavy and accurate antiaircraft fire. Hitting the cracking plant with every bomb in his load, he saw it explode in flames. He pulled out of his bombing run to return immediately at three hundred feet in two successive strafing attacks against storage tanks and personnel. Turning from his target he then strafed and damaged a twin-engine bomber on the nearby Miri Airfield. With two of his crew wounded and his plane heavily damaged by enemy fire he returned to the refinery, and made five more strafing attacks. Completing the destruction of his objective, he left it in flames and smoke rising fifteen thousand feet and visible for seventy five miles. Captain Wallaceís outstanding heroism in eliminating one of the enemyís major sources of naval fuel oil made a significant contribution to the success of our operations in the Southwest Pacific Area.

LTC Wallace resided in North Carolina.