Capt. Joseph E. Walther of this city, an army flight surgeon stationed at Hickam Field, Hawaii, has been cited for the second time for distinguished service in mid-Pacifc action, according to an Associated Press dispatch from Honolulu.

The dispatch reported that Capt. Walther was one of 79 army air heroes honored at Hickam Field Thursday and was awarded the Soldier's Medal.

Since Capt. Walther was previously awarded the Soldier's Medal his latest citation gives him the bronze Oak-Leaf Cluster. The latter award is provided for additional acts of distinguished service after receiving the Soldier's Medal.

Although the dispatch failed to mention the service which Capt. Walther performed to receive the new award, friends here believed it was for rescue work in the battle of Midway. Capt. Walther was frequently mentioned in stories of Midway battle for heroic rescue work while under Japanese bombing.

Capt. Walther was first honored with the Soldier's Medal for leading a rescue squad over Koolau range in Oahu, T.H., and supervising removal of ten victims from a crashed army airplane. The plane, its racks still loaded, crashed the night of April 5, and Capt. Walther and his party worked through the wreckage of the ship for three days.

The young flight surgeon who is the son of Mrs. J. E. Walther of this city, has been in the army since March 1941. He was comissioned a captain on induction in the army medical corps. Prior to entering the army he served as a surgeon for an airways at Midway and later was in charge of a sugar plantation hospital at Kauai, Lihui. T. H.*

* T. H. abbreviation for Hawaii