TIME
On a South Pacific island, playing ball for a ist Marine Division regimental team, Pfc. George E. Benson Jr. lifted a high foul out past third base. A Stinson grasshopper artillery spotting plane was coming in to land. The ball crashed through the windshield, broke the pilot’s jaw and knocked him unconscious.
The Stinson’s only passenger, a Marine corporal, had never flown a plane. With the dual controls, he managed to pull the light plane out of its dive. After he had sweated out 30 minutes of level flight, the pilot came to and landed on another island, 15 miles away.
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