European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 2, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday april 2 2007 stars and stripes Page 11 Rve guard members receive Bronze Star North Kingstown i five members of the Rhode Island army National guard were presented the Bronze Star on Satur Day the five soldiers All members of the 173rd infantry detach ment earned their awards during their deployments to Iraq in 2005 the National guard said the awards recognize Brave or meritorious service All five led More than 40 Long Range surveil Lance missions the recipients Are staff sgt David Raymond of Wrentham mass staff sgt Thomas Ohare of new York state staff sgt John Jack Shimkus of Rhode Island staff sgt Justin Hunt of new York state sgt Robert Carrigg of Low Ell mass Navy fighter Pilot killed in Vietnam honoured Haledon no More than 200 people gathered next to a baseball Field to pay tribute to cmdr Peter Mongilardi or a Navy fighter Pilot killed in 1965 when his a4c skyhawk was shot Down Over North Vietnam the us government finally identified his remains in january using a new Dan testing method in 1993 a joint vietnamese and us team was Able to obtain information about Mongilardi crash in Thanh Hoa province the team interviewed two local citizens who remembered the crash and led investigators to the crash site the following year an other team excavating the site found human remains and Pilot related items such As pieces of a flight Boot and a Belt tip Haledon has named a Street after Mongilardi and will hang a portrait of him in Borough Hall his remains Are to be buried at Arling ton National cemetery on april 11 from the associated press Courtesy of the us army signal maj James a Ellison left inspects the cadets in training at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee Ala in january 1942 report Tuskegee airmen not perfect enemy aircraft shot Down bombers under Wii Black aviators escort the associated press Montgomery Ala at least 25 bomb ers being escorted by the Tuskegee airmen Over Europe during world War n were shot Down by enemy aircraft according to a new air Force report the report contradicts the legend that the famed Black aviators never lost a plane to fire from enemy aircraft the report released wednesday was based on after Mission reports filed by both the bomber units and Tuskegee fighter groups As Well As missing air Crew records and witness testimony said Daniel Hau Knan a historian at the air Force historical research Agency at Maxwell air Force base in Montgomery the tally includes Only cases where planes were shot Down by enemy aircraft Huahnan said no one disputed the airmen lost some planes to antiaircraft guns and other fire from the ground the 25 planes were shot Down june 9 july 12 july 18 and july 20 1944 and March 241945 the Montgomery advertiser reported All of these records have been Here All along Haulman said it was just a matter of putting them together the surviving Tuskegee airmen the first group of Black fighter pilots allowed into the us army air corps received the congressional Gold medal on thursday from presi Dent Bush in Washington with nearly 1000 pilots and As Many As 19000 support personnel ranging from mechanics to nurses the group was credited with shooting Down More than 100 enemy air Craft and for years with never losing an american bomber under escort Haulman told the advertiser that the claim that the Tuskegee airmen had never lost a bomber they escorted to enemy fire first appeared on March 241945 in an article in the Black news paper Chicago defender the information was attributed Only to the 15th air Force Italy in fact on the very Day the claim was published More bombers under 332nd fighter group escort were shot Down Haulman wrote Send us a photo of yourself Reading y 3est copy