shot down, the plane falling in the ocean. No more enemy planes in sight, he proceeded to Wheeler to refuel and replenish ammunition. Refueling and reloading completed but before repairing guns, a second wave of about fifteen enemy planes approached low over Wheeler. Three came at him and he immediately took off, headed straight into the attack and went to the assistance of a brother officer being attacked from the rear. This enemy plane burst into flames and crashed halfway between Wahiawa and Haleiwa. During this combat his plane was struck by three bullets from the rear gun of the ship he was attacking, one striking his motor, one the propeller and one the cowling. This attack wave having disappeared he returned to the vicinity of Ewa and found one enemy plane proceeding seaward, which he pursued and shot down about five miles off shore, immediately thereafter returning to his station at Haleiwa Landing Field. Lieutenant Welch's initiative, presence of mind, coolness under fire against overwhelming odds in his first battle, expert maneuvering of his plane, and determined action contributed to a large extent toward driving off this sudden unexpected enemy air attack. Second Lieutenant Welch's unquestionable valor in aerial combat is in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflects great credit upon himself, the Hawaiian Air Force, and the United States Army Air Forces. See also Hans Guido Mutke References Notes Citations Bibliography Blackburn, Al. Aces Wild: The Race for Mach 1. Missouri City, Texas, USA: SR Books, 1998. . Hallion, Richard P. Test Pilots: The Frontiersmen of Flight. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1981. Kempel, Robert. The Race for Mach 1: Who Was the Winner? Beirut, Lebanon: HPM Publications, 2010? (X-Planes Profile 12) Kempel, Robert. "Mach 1 and the North American XP-86." AAHS Journal (American Aviation Historical Society), Vol. 51, No. 1, Spring 2006. Powers, Sheryll Goeccke. "Women in Flight Research at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center from 1946 to 1995," Monographs in Aerospace History, Number 6, 1997, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D. C. Prange, Gordon W. At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981. . Shiner, Linda. "The Mach 1 Whodunit: Don't believe everything you read on the internet". Air & Space / Smithsonian, September 2014. (Retrieved July 4, 2018) Yeager, Chuck, Bob Cardenas, Bob Hoover, Jack Russell and James Young. The Quest for Mach