First Lieutenant Lightner was a pilot of a F-51D Mustang with the 67th Fighter Bomber Squadron, 18th Fighter Bomber Group. On 7 September 1950, while flying his 47th combat mission, he was critically wounded and his plane went down in flames in the Tsushima Strait 20 miles southeast of Pusan, South Korea. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.

Lightner was awarded the Air Medal, the Purple Heart, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.