Hero's Sentence

Dismissal from the service, one of the stiffest penalties the Army can give an officer, is usually reserved for offenses involving moral turpitude. But a court-martial made an exception in the case of 24-year-old Captain Pervis Earl Youree, D.F.C. and cluster, Air Medal and three clusters.

Hero Youree was sentenced to be cashiered as an example to youngster airmen who are tempted to reckless flying. He was convicted at his station at the Ardmore, Okla. Army airfield of flying too close to a Braniff airliner and scaring the daylights out of its 21 passengers.

Before entering its sentence the court-martial considered the accused's record: he had piloted a Fortress in 25 missions over Europe, had once brought back his plane on one engine, was a first-class fighting man. They also considered his explanation: he was busy instructing a student, did not notice the airliner.

The Works. The airmen on the court-martial, recalling other instances of dangerous skylarking around commercial aircraft,* apparently thought little of his defense, gave him the works.

By last week, Captain Youree's sentence had been approved by the Second Air Force Commander, Brigadier General Uzal Girard Ent, a veteran pilot and D.F.C.-man himself, and the case was before a reviewing board.

Boiling mad, Oklahoma's Congressman Jed Johnson went to the President, later told newsmen that Franklin Roosevelt had promised to have a good look at the record. In a letter to the President, Jed Johnson cited a precedent for clemency:

"Another great President under the strain of war found it more humane to revoke the death sentence of a simple sentry who had fallen asleep on his post. Thus he taught the lesson that death itself could never have taught."

* The Civil Aeronautics Board blamed an Army bomber pilot for crashing into an American Airlines plane near Palm Springs, Calif. in October 1942, killing twelve. A court-martial acquitted the pilot.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.