On June 17, 1940, two B-18 bombers from Mitchel Field collided in the air above Bellerose, Queens. The planes plummeted to the streets below, killing all eleven crew members and one woman whose house was set on fire by flaming gasoline. One of the deceased airmen was Hugh Palmer Bedient, whose father, Hugh Carpenter Bedient, had achieved some measure of fame as a baseball player by striking out a record 42 batters in a 23-inning semipro game in 1908 and by outdueling Christy Mathewson in the 1912 World Series.
Day 1144
Eleven Army airmen
February 16th, 2015
