CRIPPLE’S HEROISM

Taranaki Daily News, 21 December 1935, Page 7

CRIPPLE’S HEROISM

DARING PARACHUTE LEAP. FUNDS FOR ARTIFICIAL LEG. To raise funds with which to 'purchase an artificial right leg and pay for hospital treatment for a partlyparalysed right arm, James Homing, 32 years old, of Medford, a professional parachute jumper, made a spectacular leap in a parachute from an aeroplane 2000 feet over the Great South Bay at Long Island recently. Despite his crippled condition, he successfully released himself from the partly submerged parachute and kept his head above water until rescued, says the New York Times. More than 2000 persons at the local air port watched the stunt and contributed towards the fund. Horning entered a Curtis Fledgling aeroplane owned and piloted by a friend, Karl jPausewang, of Sayville, at 3.30 o’clock and climbed to an altitude of 2000 feet. While three other aeroplanes circled about the ship and a score of boats of all types dotted the surface of the waters of~the bay ready to pick him up, Homing bailed out. The wind had died down and he descended slowly, striking the water a mile off shore where it was about ten feet deep. Edward Jost, his son Edward, jnr.,‘ and a life guard, Ralph Roscott, of Sayville, in Jost’s motor boat the Anna J, reached Horning less than a minute after he came to the surface, swimming from beneath his parachute. _ Homing was injured while jumping at the City Air Port, Norfolk, Virginia, on January 5, and on May 30 he was removed to the Patchogue hospital, where, on August 15, Dr. John W. Bennett amputated his right leg. He was released from the hospital on September 25. Prior to making the jump Horning, in addressing his audience, said: “I am not doing this for entertainment or the pleasure of the thing. I am doing it to provide funds to buy myself an artificial leg, and if I come back to you I will personally thank each one of you.”