While with the 20th.FG Hallberg was credited with 1 1/2 Me-110 and 1 Me-109 in the air and damaging another Me-110. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with 1 cluster and the Air Medal with 6 clusters. After the war he opened a clothing business, but after an illness in 1953, left the store and enrolled in Bob Jones University. He gratuated in 1956 and became a pastor in various congregations throughout California. He retired after 30 years in the ministry. Today he resides in South Carolina and is a member of both the 20th. Fighter Group Assoc. and the 8th. Air Force Historical Society.

While at the 1999 20th. Fighter Group Reunion, Hallberg recalled to me how he downed the Me-109 in a new P-38L model. The normal procedure for Luftwaffe pilots when a Lightning was on their tail was to dive, since the early model P-38's compressibility problems were fairly well known, to even the enemy pilots.

Hallberg got into position in a new L model and the Messerschmitt pilot went into a split-S, assuming that Hallberg would not follow. He was wrong, and the fight continued.

Pulling back on the wheel Hallberg found the controls felt welded in place, but by adjusting the trim of the aircraft he was able to pull out. As he recovered from a momentary blackout he watched the enemy plane hit the ground and explode. Score P-38L = 1, Me-109 = 0.

"The P-38L more than made up for the deficiencies of the earlier models," he stated in a recent article in King's Cliffe Remembered. "I have but one question for any who feel they must bad mouth the P-38L: 'Did you actually fly the L model in combat situations?"