Quinton Elbridge Bailey was born on April 29, 1921, in Haskell, Haskell County, Texas. He was the son of Virgil C. Bailey and Minnie A. McNeely Bailey. He was married to Ruth Florene Balke Mullins. He graduated from Haskell High School in 1939 and worked for several local businesses before accepting a position with the International Harvester Company in Sweetwater. He entered aviation cadet training at San Antonio in March 1943. He received his commission and pilot’s wings at Ellington Field in Houston on January 7, 1944, graduating with a class of 249 first pilots. He served with the 786th Bomb Squadron, 466th Bomb Group, Heavy, as a Second Lieutenant and Pilot of B-24H #42-94974, nicknamed “Off Limit's Again” during World War II.

On the morning of October 12, 1944, the 466th Bomb Group dispatched its B-24 Liberators on a mission to Osnabrück, Germany, an important rail and transportation center. Among them was Off Limit’s Again, piloted by 2nd Lt. Quinton E. Bailey. As the formation approached the target, it came under heavy German anti-aircraft fire. Bailey’s B-24 was struck by flak and quickly erupted in flames. Witnesses described the aircraft as one solid mass of flame from the leading edge of the wing all the way to the tail. A wing then broke away, sending the Liberator into a nose-down spin. As it fell, the aircraft broke apart again at the rear bomb bay wall. Another eyewitness, Smith, recalled seeing several parachutes emerge from the stricken bomber, but they were quickly engulfed by flames from the burning high-octane aviation fuel. None of Bailey’s crew survived the loss of Off Limit’s Again.

2Lt Bailey is now buried in the Willow Cemetery, Haskell, Haskell County, Texas, USA.

Sources of information: www.findagrave.com, 555navigator.blogspot.com, americanarchive.iwm.org.uk