Cordice joined the Army in 1943 and served as the official physician for the
Tuskegee Airmen. rising to the position of chief of
thoracic surgery. On September 20, 1958, Martin Luther King Jr. was attacked with a
paper knife by
Izola Curry. Cordice, along with doctors
Aubre Maynard, Farrow Allen and
Emil Naclerio, were called in to operate. Cordice mapped out a strategy which successfully saved King's life. He was the subject of the book
When Harlem Nearly Killed King: The 1958 Stabbing of Dr. Martin Luther King, by Hugh Pearson. ==Private life==