Tony F . Schneider Tony F . Schneider ( November 11 , 1917 – October 16 , 2010 ) was a former World War II pilot who taught at University of Louisville and was appointed the Holloway Plan Professor of Naval Science at the University of New Mexico . Bombing Squadron 6 . Tony Schneider completed naval flight training following graduation from Westminster College ( Missouri ) with a mathematics degree in 1939 . He was commissioned as an ensign in United States Naval Reserve in 1940 assigned to Bombing Squadron 6 aboard " Enterprise " . He launched from " Enterprise " on December 7 , 1941 in an unsuccessful attempt to locate the Japanese fleet following the attack on Pearl Harbor . He flew from " Enterprise " for the Marshalls - Gilberts raids in February , 1942 , and while " Enterprise " accompanied for the Doolittle raid in April . His Air Medal citation for the February raids reads : " Attacked enemy ships and shore installations in face of heavy anti - aircraft fire destroying large storehouse and damaging two bombers on ground with near misses . " He flew with C . Wade McClusky ' s SBD Dauntless dive bombers during the Battle of Midway , but a throttle malfunction caused his plane to run out of fuel as the dive bomber formation searched for the Japanese aircraft carriers . He spent three days in the Pacific before being rescued by a VP - 23 PBY Catalina on June 6 . He received his first Navy Cross for this action . Western Pacific . Tony Schneider became operations officer of Scouting Squadron 11 , and earned his first Distinguished Flying Cross leading air strikes out of Henderson Field ( Guadalcanal ) for three months before returning to the United States to spend a year instructing bomber pilots in Seattle . He then became commanding officer of Bombing Squadron 9 and finished the war flying from and . He received a second Distinguished Flying Cross leading a successful air strike against an aircraft assembly plant near Tokyo , a third Distinguished Flying Cross leading close air support missions during the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa , and a second Navy Cross leading Bombing Squadron 9 against " Yahagi " during Operation Ten - Go . Post - war service . After the war , Schneider served in Florida with the advanced training command at Naval Air Station Jacksonville and as tactics development officer for an anti - submarine warfare ( ASW ) development squadron in Key West . He worked at the Pentagon from 1951 to 1953 writing tactical publications for ASW and all weather operations . He subsequently served as operations officer and executive officer of the fleet all - weather training unit flying jet night fighters with the Aerospace Defense Command of the United States west coast . He served as executive officer of the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps ( NROTC ) at the University of Louisville before returning to sea as executive officer of . He then attended the Naval War College before serving as naval assistant to the North American Aerospace Defense Command ( NORAD ) from 1962 to 1965 and commanding the NROTC unit at the University of New Mexico from 1965 to 1968 . He commanded the Naval Air Station Cubi Point before retiring from active duty in 1970 . Final years . Schneider retired to Albuquerque , New Mexico , where he spent the last decade of his life caring for his wife of 67 years , Jean Ross Schneider , before dying of a stroke at the age of 92 .