Awarded The Navy Cross Posthumously
During the return flight, VT-2 planes began to run low on fuel as a result of their drawn-out search earlier that morning. All planes cut back power in order to make the flight most economically. Even so, Lt. (jg.) Thornhill could not make it. His "Devastator" ran out of fuel some 20 miles short of home, and he had to ditch in the ocean. Though a destroyer went to their rescue, Thornhill and his crew perished at sea. For his contribution to the destruction of Shoho carried out with ". . . complete disregard for his own personal safety . . .," Lt. (jg.) Thornhill was awarded the Navy Cross posthumously.
Read more about this topic: Leonard W. Thornhill
Famous quotes containing the words awarded, navy and/or cross:
“The principle of majority rule is the mildest form in which the force of numbers can be exercised. It is a pacific substitute for civil war in which the opposing armies are counted and the victory is awarded to the larger before any blood is shed. Except in the sacred tests of democracy and in the incantations of the orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“I wish to reiterate all the reasons which [my predecessor] has presented in favor of the policy of maintaining a strong navy as the best conservator of our peace with other nations and the best means of securing respect for the assertion of our rights of the defense of our interests, and the exercise of our influence in international matters.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“We are no longer in a state of growth; we are in a state of excess. We are living in a society of excrescence.... The boil is growing out of control, recklessly at cross purposes with itself, its impacts multiplying as the causes disintegrate.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)