ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- World War II bomber pilot and Fairport native George Bluhm spent nearly two years in military. His widow Betsy Bluhm could spend hours sharing his stories about his 65 combat missions, many of them life and death situations.

“He was shot down, both engines were shot out,” Bluhm said about his 50th mission. “He had his gunners bailed out and he picked a field and crash landed. They had to walk from Belgium down to France in January. He said it was so cold.”

That is the story now earning Bluhm the Distinguished Flying Cross. Congresswoman Louise Slaughter also presented Bluhm with seven other medals and honors on Wednesday. These include the Silver Star, Air Medal, Presidential Unit Citation, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal and the Honorable Service Lapel Button.

He is earning the Purple Heart from when fragments of exploding anti-aircraft fire shattered one of the windows of his bomber causing facial lacerations and injury to his eye.

“It was tough because even when he was overseas the only time he had any leave when he was wounded and in the hospital,” Bluhm said. “George just stuck with everything, it was his duty.”

Bluhm said her husband was 24-years-old and had just finished college in June 1942 when he went into the Army and eventually became a pilot in the Army Air Force a year later. He was tasked with destroying German Infrastructure in occupied Europe. His daughter Janice Blue is amazed at the responsibility at such a young age.

“When he was flying and making those kind of decisions, it had to have been difficult,” Blue said.

Now, decades later as they reflect upon all that he accomplished, Bluhm and her family only wish he could be here to share this moment.

“He’s been gone now seven years and it’s a little tough because I know he would think this is just wonderful,” his daughter Thelma Joy said.

“He’d smile big,” Bluhm said. “It would please him to no end, just because ‘you did it.’ He would appreciate it, I know.”

After Bluhm was honorably discharged from the military he worked as a farmer and shopkeeper at his father’s business Parkside Dairy in East Rochester.

He is now buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

The family said these medals will join a number of others he earned throughout his time in the military.

His stories are also chronicled in the book “Valor in Hostile Skies: The Untold Heroism of WWII Bomber Pilot Lt. George O. Bluhm” written by his son-in-law.