Lieutenant Whiteman is believed to be one of the first Airmen killed during the assault which marked the United States’ entry into World War II. For his gallantry that day, he was posthumously awarded the Silver Star, the Purple Heart, the American Defense Medal with a Foreign Service clasp, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign medal with one bronze star, and the World War II Victory Medal.  Fourteen years after his death, Gen. Nathan F. Twining, Air Force Chief of Staff, informed his mother, Mrs. Whiteman, on Aug. 24, 1955, that the recently reopened Sedalia Air Force Base would be renamed Whiteman Air Force Base in tribute to her son.