Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 17, 1994                   TAG: 9501060043
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: S-14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN SERVICE

CPL. TREVOR S. DEMPSEY, son of Richard S. and Norma Dempsey of Roanoke, recently received the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal. He is assigned with Weapons Training Battalion, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, Cal. He is a 1991 graduate of Patrick Henry High School.

SEAMAN DEMURA S. WILLIAMS, son of Richard L. Williams Sr. of Roanoke, recently returned from operations off the coast of Haiti aboard the tank landing ship USS Spartanburg County.

While in the Caribbean Sea, Williams worked supporting the United Nations sanctions against Haiti as part of an international task force.

SEAMAN RECRUIT JEFFREY S. RUSSELL, son of Debra F. Wimmer of Roanoke, recently completed basic training at Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Ill. He is a 1993 graduate of Patrick Henry High School.

SEAMAN RECRUIT SAMUEL D. SMITH, son of Samuel O. Smith and Diana F. Scharnus of Roanoke, recently completed basic training at Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, Ill.

He is a 1990 graduate of Patrick Henry High School.

AIRMAN 1ST CLASS KRISTEN L. BLALOCK, daughter of Dwight E. and Betty W. Blalock of Roanoke, has graduated from basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.

Blalock is a 1990 graduate of Cave Spring High School and a graduate of James Madison University.

F.H. WILBOURNE Salem recently received the Chinese Air Force Pilot Wings authorized by Gen. Tang Fei of the Chinese Air Force, Republic of China (Taiwan), with the cooperation of the Chinese Air Force Veterans Association.

Wilbourne, a hump pilot in World War II in the 530th Fighter Squadron, assisted the Chinese Air Force to fend off Japanese attacks.

The Hump Pilots Association is composed of more than 5,000 air crew members and support personnel who were engaged in the China-Burma-India Theater of operation during WWII.

The 530th Fighter Squadron, also known as the "Yellow Scorpions," earned two presidential unit citations by controlling the skies over Southeast Asia from September 1943 to the end of the war. It downed 279 enemy planes and destroyed 542 locomotives.

Tokyo Rose gave the squadron its Yellow Scorpions named because of the yellow P51 nose cones and the damage the squadron inflicted.