Howard Knotts Lieutenant Howard Clayton Knotts was a World War I flying ace credited with six aerial victories . Early life . Howard Clayton Knotts was the son of district attorney Edward Knotts , and was reared in Carlinville , Illinois . World War I . The younger Knotts joined the Aviation Section , U . S . Signal Corps on 31 July 1917 . He was sent to Toronto for training . His first assignment was stateside , in the 182nd Aero Squadron ; he joined them in Fort Worth on 5 November 1917 . On 4 February 1918 , he was commissioned a second lieutenant . On 14 August , he was forwarded to the 17th Aero Squadron in France . Once there , he used a Sopwith Camel to destroy six Fokker D . VII s in the month from 25 August to 24 September 1918 . He was then shot down by ground fire on 14 October , suffering a wound in his right foot in the process . He landed behind German lines and shot it out with five infantrymen , who finally captured him . Once placed on a train to the POW camp , Knotts managed to set fire to the train , ruining seven Fokker D . VIIs . He narrowly escaped being shot for sabotage . Four days later , he temporarily escaped from the Mons prisoner of war camp ; he was then shipped to a camp at Soignies to sit out the war . Postwar . Knotts left the military in 1919 . He graduated from Yale in 1921 . On 25 June 1921 , he married Charlotte Ann Sterling . He became a noted aviation lawyer and served as general counsel of the American Aeronautical Association . He died of a heart attack on 23 November 1942 . Honors and awards . Distinguished Service Cross ( DSC ) The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Howard Clayton Knotts , Second Lieutenant ( Air Service ) , U . S . Army , for extraordinary heroism in action near Arieux , France , September 17 , 1918 . During a patrol flight 5 American planes were attacked by 20 enemy Fokkers . During the combat , when Lieutenant Knotts saw one of his comrades attacked by 7 enemy planes and in imminent danger of being shot down , he , although himself engaged with the enemy , went to the assistance of his comrade and attacked 2 of his immediate pursuers . In the fight which ensued he shot 1 of the enemy down in flames and forced the other out of control . His prompt act enabled his comrade to escape destruction , although his comrade ' s plane was so disabled that he made the allied lines with difficulty , crashing as he landed . General Orders No . 19 , W . D . , 1921 Distinguished Flying Cross ( DFC ) On August 25 , 1918 he shot down from two thousand feet , over the Bapaume - Cambrai Road , on Fokker biplane . " On September 13 , 1918 he shot down from four thousand feet , near Inchy - en - Artois , northeast of Bapaume , on Fokker biplane . " On September 17 , 1918 , with Lieutenant William T . Clements , he shot down from four thousand feet , near Arleux , a Fokker biplane . " On September 22 , 1918 he shot down from six thousand feet , near Marquion ( east by south of Arras ) , a Fokker biplane . " On September 24 , 1918 he shot down from six thousand feet , just north of Bourlon Wood , two Fokker biplanes ; while flying alone on the afternoon of the same date , trying to confirm and locate an enemy aeroplane shot down by Lieutenant Campbell in the forenoon , he saw a detachment of enemy troops on the Bapaume - Cambrai Road and at once attacked them ; as he dived upon them he noticed at the side of the road past which the troops were marching a large ammunition dump , into which he fired incendiary tracer bullets which started several fires and in a few moments the dump blew up . The explosion was seen by many pilots who were in the air at that time , and by observers on the ground some fifteen miles away . " On October 8 , 1918 , having completed a low bombing attack on enemy troops in Awoingt on which his flight had been sent out , Lieutenant Knotts saw a closed German staff car passing along the road through the villages of Naves . Of his own accord and although subjected to heavy machine - gun fire from nests along the road , he followed and attacked the car from just above the tree tops as it rushed through the village until it left the road and turned over . He then noticed two enemy officers roll out of the car , one of whom lay where he fell , and returning shot the other officer who started to run away . " Lieutenant Knotts ' flying showed the greatest disregard of danger , and over and over again he did not hesitate to fly very low in spite of the fire from the ground , thereby bringing back valuable reconnaissance material and seriously harassing the enemy ' s movements during their retreat . Whilst so flying on October 4 , 1918 his engine was put out of action by ground fire , east of Saulzoir , and he was made a prisoner . Whilst a prisoner in Germany he was subjected to great exposure and his physical condition has been such that he has been in hospital ever since his return .