The Wilmington Morning Star

Airman Who Kept Bomber Up For Comrade Honored

WASHINGTON. Jan.14 --(AP)-An Air Forces officer who, critically injured, stuck to the controls of his doomed bomber because he thought a wounded crewman was aboard, has been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously.

The War Department said today that the man honored was Lt Col. Leon R. Vance. 29. He was lost in an Army evacuation plane crash between Iceland and New Found land last July. The medal will 'e presented later to his widow, Mrs. Georgette Drury Vance. Garden City, N. Y., now visiting her husband's parents at Enid, Okla.

Vance was command pilot of a heavy bomber on a mission to Wimereux, France. on the day before D-Day. His plane was hit heavily by flak the pilot killed and several members of the crew injured With three engines out. the bomber headed back for the coast of England after making a run over the target.

A fragment had cut into Vance's leg so deeply that it hung only by tendons. As the ship staggered toward England it pulled up toward a stall attitude Vance dragged himself up beside the co-pilot and took over control, cutting off the remaining engine and nosing it down into a glide.

With the coast in sight, he ordered those aboard the plane to bail out and prepared to follow them. He then heard over the plane's intercom system a message that seemed to indicate one crewman still remained aboard, prevented from jumping because of injury.

Unable to climb back into'the pilot's seat because of his severed leg. Vance handled the controls while stretched out on the floor, and looking out the side cockpit window for visual reference. A 500-pound bomb which had failed to clear the bomb bay added to the hazard

Vance, however, succeeded in setting the big bomber down into the water. An explosion then blew him clear of the sinking ship. He inflated his life belt and was picked up 50 minutes later.

Search for the lone crew member thought to have been aboard disclosed no one.