Staff Sergeant Stanley was a crew member of a B-29A Superfortress Bomber with the 371st Bomber Squadron, 307th Bomber Wing based at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa. On 8 September 1950, while returning from a bombing mission over Korea, his aircraft crashed into the East China Sea five miles north of Okinawa, killing eight crew members. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.

Stanley was awarded the Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, 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.