75 years later, former Army Air Corps sergeant receives honors for WWII service

A 90-year-old former sergeant in the Army Air Corps is receiving honors for service performed in World War II more than three-quarters of a century ago, the Department of Defense announced this week.

Dan Crowley on Monday will receive "an honorary Combat Infantryman Badge in recognition of the fighting he did while in the Philippines," the Department of Defense said in a press release this week. Crowley will also receive a Prisoner of War medal due to having been captured and enslaved by the Japanese during the war.

Crowley served at Nichols Field near Manila in the Philippines in 1941, the department said. As part of an offensive that included the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese bombed that airfield in December of that year. Crowley defended the field during that attack and eventually sailed to the Bataan Peninsula.

Several successive defeats led to Crowley being captured as a prisoner of war, after which he served in various roles as a slave laborer.

He was eventually liberated in September of 1945 and was honorably discharged in 1956.

Crowley "will also be promoted because he attained the rank of sergeant in October 1945, but he was never notified," the DOD said in the release.