HIGH HONOUR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 November 1943, Page 3

HIGH HONOUR

BESTOWED ON NEW ZEALAND OFFICER. BY UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, November 4. The Legion, of Merit, Degree of Commander, has been awarded to Commissioned Warrant Officer M. I. Harper, Royal Australian Naval Reserve, by Colonel Frank Knox, Secretary of the United States Navy, in the name of President Roosevelt. Warrant Officer Harper is a New Zealander by birth, who served with the Australian Navy in the last war and is now doing valuable and highly dangerous work in piloting ships through the tortuous channels of the Solomon Islands. He was specially mentioned in a recent dispatch as having piloted the New Zealand and American landings on Mono and Stirling Islands. He also led the attacks on Guadalcanal and Rendova Islands. Shortly before undertaking his latest duties, he spent a short time in Auckland on recuperative leave. The award which Warrant Officer Harper has received ranks very high among American decorations. So far a? is known, he is the first New Zealander to receive such a decoration. In the citation, accompanying the award it is stated that it is for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States, while on temporary duty with an amphibious force in the South Pacific in action against enemy Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands, beginning on July 16, 1942. “Through his familiarity with the dangerous waters in the vicinity of Guadalcanal and Tulagi,” says the citation, “Warrant Officer Harper, as pilot of the leading transport vessel, was of invaluable assistance to the operations officer in the initial occupation of the islands by our forces on August 7. In subsequent activities he farther distinguished himself, frequently in the face of enemy fire, by his expert professional skill and superior tactical knowledge in piloting our ships through extremely hazardous channels, and in refloating and bringing to safe harbours those damaged in action.” Warrant Officer M. I. Harper is a nephew of Mr E. W. Harper, of Master, ton.