This is a posthumous Purple Heart and Air Medal pair to Sgt. Bert Barnett Jr. They are both officially engraved and include the presentation cases. The air medal includes the Oak Leaf Cluster awarded by GO # 173 dated Feb. 27, 1945, a copy of which is included.
The 2 volume set "379th Bombardment Group (H) Anthology" has a huge amount of information pertaining to all the events of that group. Sgt. Barnett was killed on mission number 309, a bombing run on the "aerodrome" at Hopsten, Germany. Everyone on the plane was KIA as aircraft 43-38818 was hit by flak, burst into flames and exploded with no chutes deployed. The pilot of the plane was 2nd Lt. Sylvester V. Howell, from West Orange, NJ. Sgt Barnett, from Rochester, New York, is listed as the navigator.
