After graduating in the largest class of pilots ever trained at Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas on September 6, 1942 as a ‘Flying Sergeant’, Fred Hosey was a crew member on a North American B-25 ‘Mitchell’ medium bomber. After circling the city the B-25 created great excitement when Lt. John Fete, piloting the bomber, landed on the partially completed runway 1-19 during the construction of the Cumberland Airport. The bomber was parked on the bank line of the Potomac River so as to be visible from South Cumberland. Sergeant Hosey, on official leave at the time, was able to hitch a ride on the B-25 piloted by Lt. Fete as it was transiting this area on another mission. The ‘Mitchell’ bomber stopped at Cumberland only long enough to drop off the Sergeant. This convenient stop allowed Hosey to visit his mother, Leah A. Hosey, at her home at 14 Market Street in Cumberland.
Sgt. Hosey, and a North American B-25 ‘Mitchell” bomber similar to that flown by him.
Tragically, Sgt. Hosey would later lose his life, along with five other Flying Staff Sergeants, in the crash of a B-25 Bomber near Bowling Green, Kentucky on December 11, 1942, a story that was reported in the Cumberland Times-News.
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Wings Over Cumberland 