Purple Heart at Pearl Harbor

When Imperial Japanese naval and air forces attacked the US Naval Base at Pearl Harbor and then the city of Honolulu on the island of Oahu, Territory of Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, Paul L. Young, an American citizen of Chinese descent, was an eye-witness to the devastation. Displaying extraordinary courage, he was wounded while moving undamaged fighters away from those that were burning, earning him the Purple Heart. After spending twenty-three months with a heavy bomb unit in the Southwest Pacific, he served as intelligence and historical officer of the 3rd Bomb Squadron of the Chinese-American Composite Wing. One of the five missions he completed against targets in Burma during that period earned him a second Purple Heart.