Lloyd Herbert Hughes Lloyd Herbert " Pete " Hughes , Jr . , ( July 12 , 1921 – August 1 , 1943 ) , a second lieutenant in the United States Army Air Forces who received the Medal of Honor posthumously for his actions in Operation Tidal Wave during World War II . Early life and family . Hughes was born in Alexandria , Louisiana , the only son of Lloyd Herbert Hughes , Sr . , and Mildred Mae Rainey Hughes . Family and friends called him Pete . One source described his parents as Welsh immigrants , but Mildred was born in Josserand , Trinity County , Texas . The family lived in Alexandria only briefly before moving to his mother ' s native state of Texas . He graduated from Refugio High School , Refugio , Texas , in 1939 and went on to attend Corpus Christi Junior College in Corpus Christi and Texas A & M University in College Station . He studied petroleum engineering at Texas A & M and was a member of the class of 1943 , but left school before graduating . A few weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor he joined the military . He entered the military service at San Antonio on January 28 , 1942 , and was appointed an aviation cadet the same day . On November 8 , 1942 , Hughes married Hazel Dean Ewing . Military service . After attending flight school in Tulsa and Enid , Oklahoma , Hughes received his pilot ' s wings at Lubbock , Texas , on November 10 , 1942 . He was assigned to the 389th Bombardment Group , went to Africa in June 1943 , and participated in five combat missions in the Italy - Romania area . During Operation Tidal Wave , the most highly decorated military mission in U . S . history , 179 B - 24 Liberator heavy bombers took off on an 18 - hour , 2 , 400 mile round trip mission to destroy the largest of the Nazi - held oil refineries at Ploieşti , 30 miles north of Bucharest , Romania . The raid would not be a success . Fifty - four aircraft never returned and of the five U . S . Air Force airmen , including 2nd Lt . Lloyd Herbert Hughes , awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery ; three , including Hughes , would receive the award posthumously . During the August 1 , 1943 bombing mission over the Câmpina oil fields north of the Ploieşti oil fields in Romania , Hughes was the pilot of a B - 24 flying in the last element of a formation . When he arrived in the target area the enemy defenses were already alerted by previous aircraft . He approached the target at a planned , but dangerously low altitude , through intense and accurate anti - aircraft fire and densely arranged barrage balloon s . Several hits from both large and small caliber anti - aircraft guns seriously damaged his aircraft and caused gasoline to leak from tanks in the bomb bay and left wing . The leak was so heavy that it blinded his waist gunner ' s view . Hughes could have attempted a forced landing of his damaged aircraft in one of the surrounding grain fields before he reached the target area which was blazing with burning oil tanks and refinery equipment . Flames were reaching high above the bombing level of the formation . Knowing the consequences of entering the inferno with his airplane leaking gasoline in two places , Hughes elected to carry on , rather than jeopardize the formation and the success of the attack . He flew into the wall of fire at about above the ground and dropped his bomb load with precision . He emerged from the conflagration with the left wing of his aircraft on fire . He attempted to pull up and away from the action , trying to save his plane and crew . He successfully slowed the plane ' s speed from 225 to 100 miles an hour . It looked as if he would be able to crash land in the dry river bed of the Prahova River , when suddenly the left wing flew off and the plane cartwheeled into the ground . Of the ten men aboard the B - 24 , Hughes and five others were killed , two died of their wounds within days and the two who survived the crash became prisoners of war . On November 13 , 2010 , he was inducted into the Louisiana Military Hall of Fame in Abbeville , Louisiana . Medal of Honor . Eight months after he was killed in action , on April 18 , 1944 , Hughes ' Medal of Honor was presented to his wife Hazel . Hughes was the first of seven Texas A & M alumni to receive the medal for actions during World War II . On March 30 , 2009 , his family loaned the medal to the Sanders Corps of Cadets Center on the Texas A & M campus . Hughes ' official Medal of Honor citation reads : For conspicuous gallantry in action and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty . On August 1943 , 2d Lt . Hughes served in the capacity of pilot of a heavy bombardment aircraft participating in a long and hazardous minimum - altitude attack against the Axis oil refineries of Ploesti , Rumania , launched from the northern shores of Africa . Flying in the last formation to attack the target , he arrived in the target area after previous flights had thoroughly alerted the enemy defenses . Approaching the target through intense and accurate antiaircraft fire and dense balloon barrages at dangerously low altitude , his plane received several direct hits from both large and small caliber antiaircraft guns which seriously damaged his aircraft , causing sheets of escaping gasoline to stream from the bomb bay and from the left wing . This damage was inflicted at a time prior to reaching the target when 2d Lt . Hughes could have made a forced landing in any of the grain fields readily available at that time . The target area was blazing with burning oil tanks and damaged refinery installations from which flames leaped high above the bombing level of the formation . With full knowledge of the consequences of entering this blazing inferno when his airplane was profusely leaking gasoline in two separate locations , 2d Lt . Hughes , motivated only by his high conception of duty which called for the destruction of his assigned target at any cost , did not elect to make a forced landing or turn back from the attack . Instead , rather than jeopardize the formation and the success of the attack , he unhesitatingly entered the blazing area and dropped his bomb load with great precision . After successfully bombing the objective , his aircraft emerged from the conflagration with the left wing aflame . Only then did he attempt a forced landing , but because of the advanced stage of the fire enveloping his aircraft the plane crashed and was consumed . By 2d Lt . Hughes ' heroic decision to complete his mission regardless of the consequences in utter disregard of his own life , and by his gallant and valorous execution of this decision , he has rendered a service to our country in the defeat of our enemies which will everlastingly be outstanding in the annals of our Nation ' s history .