Cross for a Corporal

As operations clerk at the Navy's Rockwell Field in San Diego, Calif, the job of Corporal Kilmer N. Torner, U. S. M. C.. was mostly that of recording other men's flying hours. Once in a while he was given a flight as a passenger but he never had a chance to touch the controls. In such a job Corporal Torner could scarcely be expected to win a Distinguished Flying Cross. Yet last week he got one for an "extraordinary achievement ... of self-sacrificing heroism." . . .

One day last March Corporal Torner was riding as a passenger in the rear cockpit behind Pilot Orlo S. Hoffer when, at 2,000 ft., the plane began spinning out of control. Corporal Torner was about to jump when he saw that the plane was spinning because Pilot Hoffer had fallen ill, was slumped heavily against the joystick. Rather than leave the pilot to die. Corporal Torner climbed into the forward cockpit, dragged the inert body from the controls, managed to right the plane just before it would have crashed. Then he climbed the ship to a safe altitude, practiced with the controls for 15 or 20 min.. made a safe landing on Rockwell Field. When help arrived Corporal Torner was giving first aid to the sick pilot.

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