Cpl Edward Gene Bailey died non Battle
He was a passenger on Aircraft 43-38856
The Kingsport Times-News, December 1948
Mt. Carmel Youth will be reburied Mt-Carmel – The body of Cpl. Edward Gene Bailey will arrive in Kingsport Tuesday at 2:45 p.m. and will be met by the Church Hill VFW, Post 9754.
Cpl Bailey was killed in a plane crash, April 23, 1945 en route to Ireland. He was one of 31 men who died in the crash on the Isle of Mann. He was a member of the Eighth Air Force and was with the Ground Forces, loading bombs on the planes.
Before entering service in February, 1942, he was employed at the Kingsport Foundry. He graduated at Church Hill High School in 1939. He took his army training at Blight, California, and was sent overseas in June, 1942, from Smit Lake City, Utah.
He is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. W.J. Bailey, three brothers, W.J. Bailey Jr., Connie and Hollis; two sisters, Phyllis and Barbara Bailey; two half sisters, Mrs. Charlie Messick and Mrs. Carlyle Gilreath, all of Church Hill.
The plane in question was a B-17G bomber; 31 died in the crash.
There is a Wikpedia page on the crash, which is “the deadliest aviation accident to have occurred in the Isle of Man” and was “due to controlled flight into terrain”; see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USAAF_Boeing_B-17_crash_on_North_Barrule
See also http://isleofman.com/News/details/63244/air-disaster-commemorated
In group picture below Bailey is the fourth man standing on the left.
Picture above from www.honorstates.org
- Rank: Corporal
- Date of birth: 27 February 1924
- Date of death: 23 April 1945
- County: Hawkins
- Hometown: Church Hill
- Service Branch: Army/Army Air Forces
- Division/Assignment: 533rd Bomber Squadron, 381st Bomber Group, Heavy
- Theater: Europe
- Conflict: World War II
- Burial/Memorial Location: Kingsport Cemetery, Kingsport, TN
- Location In Memorial: Pillar XII, Middle Panel
- Contact us to sponsor Edward G. Bailey
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