By Ned Lodwick – 

It was a dark and stormy night, as the old opening line of bad mystery novels once started.
It was Christmas Eve 1944 and it was raining and very foggy. The night that all were beginning their celebrations of Christmas was not going to be as peaceful as the folks around Brownstown had expected.
At 6:06 PM the evening changed when an explosion rocked the area south of Tracy Road. People heard the plane and could tell buy the sound they knew it was in trouble. Howard Kelch witnessed the event. When he heard the sound of the engine he stepped outside and saw the low flying plane change direction from north to east and seemed to attempt to land in a stubble field.