Elmer Gedeon was a multi-sport star at the University of Michigan, earning All-American in track and field and varsity letters in football and baseball. In fact, in 1938 he tied the world record in the high hurdles. After college he went on to a major league career as an outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1939 and 1940. He was then drafted in 1941 into the United States Army. He received training as bomber pilot, and was decorated for bravery after his plane crashed on a training flight in 1941. He then served in combat as a bomber pilot in Europe during World War 2.
Gedeon was assigned to the 21st BG as part of the 586th Bomb Squardron, part of the United States Army Air Forces, and was eventually sent to RAF Boreham, England where he was part of the Ninth Air Force. He was promoted to Squadron Operations Officer and his first mission was to attack an airfield at Beaumont-le-Roger, France, on March 23, 1944.
On April 20, 1944, Gedeon piloted a B-26 that left Boreham to attack a “buzz bomb” site near Saint-Omer. It was his thirteenth mission and his last. Just after bombing the site, his plane was hit with flak just below the cockpit, and Gedeon and five other crew members died in the crash. His body was later recovered and sent to the United States where it was buried in Arlington National Cemetary.
As stated earlier, Gedeon and Harry Mink O’Neill were the only two Major League ball players to die in combat. In 1983, Gedeon was inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Fame for both track and baseball.
Aces High salutes Elmer Gedeon for his service to his country.
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