Late on December 28, 1944, Roman flew alone through heavy weather to attack Clark Field on Luzon — at the time still held by the Japanese. Approaching low and dark, he tucked in behind two enemy bombers landing ahead of him, flipped on his own lights to blend into their traffic pattern, and dropped his bombs on them as they touched down before peeling away. On the way home his radios failed, a typhoon forced him to descend to treetop height over the water, and he landed at Tacloban on fumes — with a tailwind he didn't find out about until after he was down.
"I told my co-pilot, 'No matter what! We have to get down on this try, or we would be out of gas!' ... I got it down, I don't know how, and stopped just 20 or 30 feet from the end."
Roman was told after the debriefing that he'd be recommended for the Distinguished Flying Cross — but the squadron's own confidential mission report, filed three weeks later, concludes flatly that "there were no actions justifying awards on this strike." Roman never received the DFC for this mission. Below are the actual wartime documents behind the story: the mission report itself, a DFC citation awarded to his friend Lt. Perkins for a related action two nights earlier, and a wartime press clipping about Roman's exploit specifically.
Read Roman's full written account as a PDF, with all of the original photos and documents →
[This is a condensed excerpt for the sketch — the full page would carry the complete written account alongside the video, as already sent to Bernard for review.]
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