The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 2, 1926, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to First Lieutenant (Air Corps) Ludwell K. Walker, United States Army Air Forces, for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight on 15 February 1945. These individuals were members of the crew of a B-29 aircraft which took off from a base in the Mariana Islands on a bombing mission against a heavily defended aircraft engine plant at Nagoya, Japan. They flew through adverse and hazardous weather conditions and upon arrival at the assembly point found that a rendezvous could not be accomplished because of very heavy cloud formations at the assigned altitude. It was necessary to climb to a higher altitude to bring the aircraft into the clear and the resultant icing conditions rendered their radar and gun turrets inoperative making it necessary to attack the target unarmed and by whatever check points were visible through the cloud cover. Unprotected and in the face of imminent enemy opposition they started a down wind run on a heading of 90 degrees on an airfield target on Nagoya Harbor. A cloud moved over this target and a turn of 180 degrees was executed for a run on the dock area. This target had to be abandoned and on a third run on a 90 degrees heading they bombed the industrial center of Nagoya. The determination of these individuals to bomb the target and their courage and skill which resulted in the successful accomplishment of this difficult mission reflect great credit on themselves and the Army Air Forces.