BENJAMIN — A World War II veteran, retired Col. Walter T. Stewart will be inducted Thursday into the Utah Aviation Hall of Fame at the Hill Aerospace Museum at Hill Air Force Base.
The ceremony will take place at the officers' club at Hill Air Force Base. Stewart was elected into the Utah Hall of Fame by the 18 other members of the state's Hall of Fame for aviators.
A bust of Stewart for the Hall of Fame will be unveiled May 21 while other Armed Forces Day activities are taking place, retired Navy Rear Admiral Jeremy Taylor said in a statement. Stewart, who has a family farm in Benjamin, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his role in the bombing of Romanian oil refineries in August 1943, one of more than 30 bombing raids during his five years of active duty in the Air Force. It was one of the most important bombing raids of the war.
His story of the Ploesti, Romania, bombing is told in the television documentary "Wing and a Prayer." He flew his B-24 Liberator "Utah Man" on that mission and barely made it back to base in north Africa after his craft was heavily damaged.
Stewart recalls the excitement he and his crew felt as they took off for the seven-hour journey to their target. It was an opportunity to shorten the war by cutting the Nazi fuel supplies, he said. He had already flown his required 25 missions and could have returned home. This was to be his 31st mission.
He was deputy leader as the group of bombers approached Ploesti. But with few ground features, the target was difficult to pick out, and radio silence was mandatory. Then, one of his crewmen spotted the refineries "at 9 o'clock." That meant they would have to make a sharp 90-degree turn.
Soon the commander saw the target and made the turn. But then both the commander and his right wingman were shot down. That left Stewart to lead the bombers behind him to the target.
The bombers flew 50 feet off the ground to devastate three of the five oil refineries, which seriously hurt the German war effort. Of the 154 bombers that crossed the target area 54 were shot down and 200 airmen killed. Another 300 were captured by German fighters, Stewart said.
"When we hit a target we would all sing 'God Bless America.' We really sang it that day," he recalled.
"We were excited when we saw the huge columns of smoke rise up behind us," he said. "We were yelling at each other."
Emotions ran from excitement to extreme fear during the operation.
"We were scared to death, but you really don't let that bother you," he said.
Stewart's plane was so seriously damaged and leaking fuel that he was going to belly land it. But then crewmen discovered they had bombs still aboard that had hung up in the bomb bay. They pried those loose and dropped them over open areas, then continued the flight home, expecting to run out of fuel any moment.
Stewart made one more bombing run in "Utah Man" before quitting. Two raids later the airplane was shot down, and its crew lost, he said.
Other military awards he holds are the Medal of Honor, Silver Star and five awards of the Air Medal.
He was also awarded the coveted "Bronze Minute Man" award by the Utah National Guard after serving more than 30 years in the air Force Reserve, including the Nevada Wing of the Civil Air Patrol as the Air Force Liaison Officer.
After leaving active duty, Stewart became an officer in the Utah Wing of CAP as a flying instructor.
E-mail: rodger@desnews.com