The Human Yo-Yo

In his 18 1/2 years of military service, Thomas ("Pop") Thornton of Hempstead, Texas, has bounced from sergeant to private and back again like a yoyo. Usually it was his half-Irish, half-English temper that cost him his stripes.

Husky, handlebar mustached Pop Thornton is now 48 years old. He enlisted in the cavalry in 1927, began breaking Army mounts, during his first year broke all his toes, both feet and one knee. In 1937, having been demoted several times, Pop left the Army but re-enlisted the day after Pearl Harbor. During the Battle of the Bulge, he won a Bronze Star for charging a house full of Germans, capturing 14. He finished the war at a sort of halfway stage--as a corporal.

In 1946, Pop enlisted in the Air Force, found himself, of all things, a medic. In Korea he was the oldest man in the 3rd Air Rescue Group, but he showed the youngsters what an old soldier can do. He went on 64 rescue missions, mostly in "choppers" (helicopters).

Last week a Marine Corsair pilot, Major David Cleeland, crash-landed on a frozen reservoir, 70 miles north of the front line. Two of the rescue group's chopper pilots grabbed Pop and flew off. They found Cleeland surrounded by Reds who were pouring fire at a dummy which the major had made of his rolled-up parachute and helmet. One mounted Chinese made a one-man cavalry charge at Cleeland, was dropped by a Corsair that swooped in.

Aboard the helicopter, there was a moment's hesitation: rescue pilots are not required to go in under heavy fire. Pop and the pilots decided to chance it. The chopper sat down 15 yards from the crashed plane and Major Cleeland made a run for it. Just as Pop was stretching out a beefy right hand to help him aboard, a Chinese hit the hand with a rifle bullet. Cleeland was hit in the leg, but Pop pulled him aboard with his good hand, and the rescue craft whirled safely away.

At week's end, Pop was out of the hospital with his puffed-up hand in a sling, his left hand proudly brandishing a letter from his captain recommending his promotion to staff sergeant. "This time," he said, without too much confidence in his voice, "I'm going to make it stick. After all, I retire in two years."

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