DOB/DOD: October 5, 1889 (Quincy, FL) – October 7, 1920 (Hartford, CT); 31 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Unmarried
FAMILY: Born to William M. Sr. (1860-1927) and Sarah E. Wiggins Corry (1856-1952). Five brothers, Albert D. (1888-1922), James W. (1892-1952), Arthur (1893-1977), Edwin (1898-1898), and Henry E. (1900-1959). One sister, Alice H. (1895-1920).
OTHER: Graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1910 and designated a Naval Aviator in 1916.
Lieutenant Commander Corliss was also the recipient of the Navy Cross. The citation reads:
The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Lieutenant Commander William Merrill Corry, Jr., United States Navy, for distinguished and heroic service as an Airplane Pilot, making many daring nights over the enemy’s lines, also for untiring and efficient efforts toward the organization of U.S. Naval Aviation, Foreign Service, and the building up of the Northern Bombing project.
Photos courtesy of USNAMemorialHall.org
MEDAL OF HONOR CITATION
AWARDED FOR ACTIONS DURING: Peace Time Awards
BRANCH OF SERVICE: Navy
UNKNOWN PRESENTATION DATE
AGE ON THE DAY OF THE EVENT: 30
CITATION:
The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Lieutenant Commander William Merrill Corry, Jr., United States Navy, for heroic service in attempting to rescue a brother officer from a flame-enveloped airplane near Hartford, Connecticut. On 2 October 1920, an airplane in which Lieutenant Commander Corry was a passenger crashed and burst into flames. He was thrown 30 feet clear of the plane and, though injured, rushed back to the burning machine and endeavored to release the pilot. In so doing, he sustained serious burns, from which he died four days later.
Lieutenant Commander William M. Corry, Jr., USN (1889-1920) William Merrill Corry, Jr. was born on 5 October 1889 in Quincy, Florida. Admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy in June 1906, he graduated in 1910 and spent the next five years serving in the battleship Kansas. In mid-1915, Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Corry began instruction in aviation at Pensacola, Florida, and was designated Naval Aviator # 23 in March 1916. He had a flying position with the armored cruiser Seattle between November 1916 and May 1917, then was an officer in the armored cruiser North Carolina. In August 1917, Lieutenant Corry began World War I service in France, where he commanded Naval Air Stations at La Croisic and Brest during 1918 and early 1919. He was promoted to Lieutenant Commander in July 1918. Corry remained in France for the rest of 1919 and the first half of 1920, involved in removing U.S. Naval Aviation forces from Europe as part of the post-war demobilization. In mid-1920, Lieutenant Commander Corry was assigned as aviation aide to the Commander in Chief Atlantic Fleet, stationed on the Fleet’s flagship, U.S.S. Pennsylvania. While on a flight from Long Island, New York, with another pilot in early October 1920, the plane crashed near Hartford, Connecticut. Though thrown clear of the wreckage, the injured Corry ran back to pull the other officer free of the flaming aircraft. Badly burned during this rescue, William M. Corry died at Hartford on October 7, 1920. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism during that accident. Airfields at Pensacola, Florida, and three destroyers have been named in honor of Lieutenant Commander Corry.
From the Hartford Courant October 4, 1920
CROWD AGHAST AT FATAL ENDING OF TRIP TO HARTFORD
Lieutenant A.C. Wagner Dies in Hospital – Commander Corry of Atlantic Air Fleet Is Seriously Burned
FRANTIC ATTEMPT TO SAVE AVIATOR’S LIFE
W.E. Batterson, Col. Horsey, and Keane Face Flames – Officers Were Guests of Lieut Col Howard
Lieutenant Arthur C. Wagner, United States Naval Air Service, died about 10 o’clock last night after lingering for nearly eight hours in agony from burns he received when the naval Curtis airplane, which he and Lieutenant Commander William Merrill Corry, commander of the Atlantic Fleet Air Section, were starting on their return journey to Mineola, Long Island, capsized and burned up on the grounds of the Hartford Golf Club yesterday afternoon. Corry received several broken ribs when he was spilled from the machine as it fell, and when he returned to the aid of his comrade, he was terribly burned about the face and hands.
Walter E. Batterson, Colonel Hamilton R. Horsey, former assistant chief of the staff of the Twenty-sixth Division, and Martin Keane, all of this city, were burned while aiding Corry to extricate Wagner from the flaming mass which had been the plane.
The plane had just been started on the return trip to the Mineola Air Station, whence the two aviators had come on Saturday afternoon in a cross-country flight and were receiving all possible attention from a number of club members on the veranda and tennis courts at the time of the accident.
Wagner Piloting Plane
Lieutenant Wagner was in the forward or pilot’s seat, and Lieutenant Commander Corry was in the rear passenger seat. While there were controls in both seats, Wagner was piloting the plane. People who were gathered around the start disagreed on whether Wagner remarked that the plane was out of order. Some say that he said it was running perfectly.
The start was made in a northerly direction, but when the plane was about fifty feet in the air, it turned completely around and headed southwest. As it passed over the clubhouse, Commander Corry waved to Colonel Horsey and Lieutenant Colonel James S. Howard, secretary of the Travelers Insurance Company, whose guests the two officers had been, and everything appeared to be going well with the machine. Just beyond the club is a large grove of trees, which seemed to the onlookers to be offering interference to the clear flight of the machine. At any rate, just before reaching the grove, the plane swerved sharply to the right and was heading back in a northerly direction when it suddenly made a nose dive from an altitude of about seventy-five feet. Onlookers did not agree on what happened just before the crash, but it was thought that the engine had stopped. This was later found to be the case.
The machine hit the ground at a sharp angle and immediately turned over endwise, the propeller catching in the ground. Commander Corry was catapulted from his seat, but Wagner, who had strapped himself into his seat, was less fortunate. As the machine turned over, it burst into flames, enveloping him in a wash of hissing gasoline from the broken tank.
Corry’s Bravery
Commander Corry, picking himself up from the ground, was the first to rush to the aid of his comrade. It was in this way that his coat caught fire with the resulting burns to his hands and face. He was unable to pull Wagner free, and it was not until Walter E. Batterson of the Travelers Insurance Company and Martin Keane, an attaché of the club, added their efforts this was successfully accomplished. Club members rushed from the clubhouse with several gallons of olive and sweet oil and were on hand almost as soon as the stricken man was freed from his seat. While the burning clothing was being removed from Wagner’s body, Benjamin Allen, a porter in the club, quickly wrapped his coat around Corry’s head and thus cut off any chance of the flames reaching the officer’s nose or eyes.
Allen then, with Corry helping, removed the coat and smothered the other smoldering pieces of clothing. Corry’s hands and face were burned so badly that not a trace of skin was left untouched. Several ribs were also broken.
Wagner Game
Wagner was rolled over on the ground by willing hands to extinguish the flames, and with the help of the two men who had dragged him from his place beneath the plane, much of his clothing that still remained unburned was stripped from his body to make way for dressings in olive and sweet oil which by this time were available. He was wrapped in swaths of oil-soaked linen and cotton sheeting to allay the agony of his burns. Every scrap of clothing was almost entirely consumed, and his shoes were burned to a crisp. Throughout the process, Wagner, fully conscious, was directing the efforts of the willing helpers despite the fact that his face was burned beyond recognition, with his nose and ears partly burned from his head.
He remained game even up to the time when he was being tenderly lifted to the ambulance, when he thanked those who had helped, telling them that he was sure they had done all they could to aid him.
Corry in Serious Plight
While the work of rescue was going on, William H. Mann, who had been at the tennis court when the crash occurred, appeared on the gulf course with his touring car, which he had driven over knowing that it would furnish quicker transportation than an ambulance. With the help of Lieutenant Colonel Howard, Mr. Mann helped Commander Corry, whose face and hands had been absolutely stripped of skin by the flames, into the car and started for the Hartford Hospital. Wagner was held for the ambulance so that all the aid possible could be given to allay his sufferings and also because it would be impossible to carry him in an open touring car in his condition.
Mr. Mann said after his return from the hospital that he had broken all the speed laws of the state in getting Corry to medical aid and that he was glad to be able to do so. Corry, he said, did not complain of the pain of his burns but did say that they were itching terribly despite the coatings of olive oil on the wounds.
As an indication of the severity of Corry’s burns, it was pointed out that his own coat and that of Benjamin A. Allen, which had been wrapped around his head, both burned to ashes.
Wagner Horribly Burned.
The remnants of Wagner’s clothing also told a graphic story, with only shreds of the different garments remaining. His shoes were partly freed from his feet, and with the burning of his clothing, every bit of skin on his body was seared off by the heat. The flames partly burned his ears and nose, but miraculously, his eyes were spared, although the lashes and brows, with his hair, were completely burned off. But worst of all, he remained conscious through the entire agony.
Relatives Notified
Lieutenant Wagner was in a condition where it was almost impossible to secure any information from, but the hospital authorities were asked to notify Mrs. Elizabeth Wagner of Wayburn, Saskatchewan, Canada. Whether she is his wife or mother could not be determined by the hospital authorities.
The flier’s courage was evident at the hospital. At about 9 o’clock last night, he was able to sip a glass of milk through a tube, and after he finished, he thanked the nurses for the kindness they were showing him.
According to physicians in the hospital, his recovery was highly improbable, but it was said that if there was any chance for any human being to pull through after receiving such burns, that Wagner would surely do it since, from the time of the accident, he had been displaying marvelous willpower and remarkable endurance.
In spite of a heroic fight for life, covering nearly eight hours from the time he received his burns, Wagner died soon after 10 o’clock. The tremendous display of pluck and vitality shown by the man through all of his agony was the marvel of all the physicians and nurses in the hospital.
Corry is Commander
Lieutenant Commander William Merrill Corry Jr., of Quincy, Florida, is the Commanding officer of the aviation section of the Atlantic Fleet, with headquarters at the U.S. Ship Pennsylvania, Admiral Wilson’s flagship. He has been a lifelong friend of Colonel Hamilton R. Horsey, whose guests both officers had been from Saturday afternoon to yesterday.
The flight is understood to have been one of the regular cross-country jaunts which are required of all the naval aviators, and it was during their stay in the city that Corry and Wagner were the guests of Colonel Howard and Colonel Horsey. The trip was in direct line of duty, and the stopover factor was included in this, it is understood.
Boy Describes Crash
One of the witnesses of the accident was 14-year-old Harold Johnson of number 73 Tremont Street.
“I was on the golf course when the airplane started at about 3 o’clock.” said young Johnson. “The machine did not seem to go just right. I heard some men say the trouble was caused by bad gas. It was not quite up to the level of the tree tops when it tried to come back to the ground. Then it fell straight down, landed on a hillside, and burst into flames. The officer in the back of the machine was thrown out and began walking around with his coat on fire. Some men rolled him on the ground and threw coats around him, putting the fire out. The other officer was strapped into the machine and was badly burned. Both men were taken to the hospital, and I heard some people say that one of them might die. I also heard the one who was strapped in say he knew what caused the accident but that he would not tell. This was just before they took him away in an ambulance.”
Burns Terrible
Assistant Corporation Counsel Phillip Roberts was among the many witnesses who arrived on the scene shortly after the accident happened. Mr. Roberts, who served with a combat division in France, said last night that he had never during the war seen a more terrible sight than the two aviators yesterday after the fall. He was playing tennis on one of the lower courts when he heard shouts and ran up to see what had happened.
He saw one of the men enveloped in flames rolling down the hill west of the club where the plane crashed, while the other man, also in flames, was being aided by those who had rushed to the spot when they saw the machine sideslip. They were beating out the fire with coats. Both men appeared to be terribly burned.
From the Hartford Courant October 14, 1920
The members of the class of 1910 at the United States Naval Academy have resolved, it is reported, to erect a memorial at Annapolis in memory of their classmate, Lieutenant Commander William Merrill Corry, who died in this city following his injuries when the airplane in which he was riding capsized and was burned at the Hartford Golf Club October 3. Thus, they would honor the memory of a brave gentleman whose death was as heroic as if he had fallen in battle, who unhesitatingly, though vainly, gave his life for his companion and friend.
The public knows of him as a man who, in the immediate call of a great crisis, acted according to the highest traditions of the American Navy. His record of service during the war is likewise public knowledge, a record honorable and distinguished. His private life is not the concern of the rest of us, yet it violates no confidence to say that among the many who came to stand in sorrow at his grave, there was a unanimous tribute to the unusual qualities that made him one of the best-liked men in his class at the Naval Academy and, following that, one of the most popular and respected officers in the Navy.
When the airplane in which he and Lieutenant Arthur C. Wagner were flying fell to the ground, he was hurled free of the machine, which, with Lieutenant Wagner beneath it, immediately burst into flames. In a minute, bruised and shaken, Lieutenant Corry was on his feet. There was not the slightest hesitation. Absolutely unmindful of himself, he rushed into the burning wreckage and tried to rescue Wagner. Later, at the hospital, so horribly burned that there was only the slightest chance for his recovery and enduring terrible agony, his cheerfulness, his hopefulness, and his brave fight for life amazed his doctors and nurses.
It is fitting that there should be erected at Annapolis a memorial to him. There he came, a young man. There, he learned the art of war and the traditions of the service. The boys who yearly enter that institution, who hear of the countless brave deeds of the men whose places they are being trained to fill, can do no better than to hope that, if the crisis presents, in war or in peace, they, like him, will meet it as a man should and, like a hero, die.
From the Pensacola News Journal October 7, 2011, by Hill Goodspeed of the National Naval Aviation Museum
CORRY’S LEGACY SOARS ON
For decades, Pensacola has been known as the Cradle of Naval Aviation, a moniker that reflects its role in the figurative birth of thousands of personnel who have flown and fought for their nation in the cockpits of Naval aircraft. For William Merrill Corry Jr., not only did the launching of his flying career occur in the state of Florida, but so too did life itself. He was the first native Floridian to receive the Wings of Gold.
A product of the rolling farmland of Quincy, Corry entered the Navy as a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1906. He proved popular with his Annapolis classmates in the Class of 1910, who called him “one of the best of us and one of the best liked. … He has a man’s head coupled to a boy’s heart and live enthusiasm.”
Following graduation, Corry went to sea aboard the battleship Kansas (BB 21), yet by the time his ship returned stateside in April 1914, Corry had become disillusioned with the life of a Naval officer, requesting that he be allowed to resign his commission.
The denial of his request came at a time when there was a new line of duty for Naval officers, aviation probably appealing to the “boy’s heart and enthusiasm” for which Corry was known. Applying for flight instruction, Corry was accepted and reported to Pensacola Naval Air Station in July 1915, earning his wings as Naval Aviator No. 23 the following year.
After a period of sea duty, he received his first command, reporting overseas to establish a Naval air station at Le Croisic, France. It was the Navy’s first operational air station, sending its seaplanes out to hunt for German U-boats operating in the waters off the French coast. He subsequently assumed command of NAS Brest and, by war’s end, had been awarded the Navy Cross and French Chevalier, Légion d’Honneur.
Returning to the United States, Corry joined the staff of the Commander, Atlantic Fleet, ready to assume an important place in shaping postwar Naval aviation. Yet, on October 3, 1920, just two days shy of turning 41, he had a more immediate calling, one that revealed the highest character.
While flying as a passenger in a borrowed Army JN-4H “Jenny” landplane, he had just taken off from Hartford, Connecticut, when the engine quit, the plane crashed, throwing Corry 30 feet from the aircraft. Gas began leaking onto the hot engine manifold and ignited, enveloping the forward section of the plane in flames.
Though having broken ribs, Corry immediately dashed into the blaze in an effort to rescue the pilot, Navy Lieutenant Arthur C. Wagner, who managed to free himself from the airplane and stagger away with severe burns. He died later that night. Corry also suffered burns, which resulted in his death on Oct. 7, 1920.
For his actions, Corry received the Medal of Honor posthumously. He was one of six members of the Class of 1910 to lose their lives in aircraft accidents, the names of two of them — Bronson and Chevalier — joining his as namesakes of Panhandle air stations where subsequent generations of Naval aviators were born.
This plaque hangs in Memorial Hall, United States Naval Academy. Photo courtesy of Colleen Krueger, Public Affairs Specialist, USNA.
Buried in Eastern Cemetery, 339 E. Jefferson Street, Quincy, Florida. Photo contributed by Keith Faircloth.
END