Lt. Paul Mathias Wins Medals; Excels In Sinking Nip Ships
Lieut. Leonard Paul Mathias, who recently was awarded the Navy Air Medal for his outstanding
achievements in the South Pacific air operations, has just received the Navy Cross and the Distinguished Flying Cross, he has advised his wife, Mrs. Marjorie Meixner Mathias, of Peoria, Ill.
Lieut. Mathias is a commander of a torpedo plane squadron which played a major part in the activities of the Naval Air Group No. 19 in the recent fighting around Formosa and other islands in which an American carrier task force sank four enemy carriers and took high toll of Jap surface ships.
Lieut. Mathias in his letter to his wife did not mention the action for which he was awarded the Navy Cross and DFC but in previous press releases he was credited with scoring a hit on the largest of the four enemy carriers destroyed.
Rounding out his third tour of overseas duty, Lieut. Mathias is credited with sinking two Japanese cargo vessels and a Jap destroyer in action prior to the Formosa fighting, and has been nationally mentioned as one of the Navy’s outstanding pilots.
A former school instructor in Mathias, he entered the service in 1941 and previously saw action in North Africa and on Guadalcanal. He is a grandson of Isaiah Strawderman. Mrs. Mathias and their infant son are residing in Peoria until the lieutenant returns from overseas.
