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) Robert W. Sternfels, United States Army Air Forces, for distinguished and meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight against the enemy in operations against the Ploesti Oil Refineries of Romania on 1 August 1943. These men of the 345th Bombardment Squadron, 98th Bombardment Group were all members of aircrews of heavy bombardment aircraft which assaulted the major fuel supply of the Axis on the above date. In a mission which involved extraordinary difficulty of execution and very great danger, they performed their tasks assigned to them with such efficiency, application to duty and fearlessness that in the face of almost overwhelming odds, the operation was successfully accomplished. Flying through enemy flak, bursting bombs, flaming, smoking oil tanks, and a balloon barrage, they bombed and strafed their objective with such satisfactory effect as to destroy the source of more than one third of the enemy’s refined fuel. Their achievement adds a new and brilliant chapter to the record of the Army Air Forces.