Second Lieutenant Clyde W. “Sparky” Cosper of Dodd City, Texas trained as a fighter pilot at Curtis Field in Brady, TX where he was in the top 10% of his class. The 21 year-old pilot is now better known as the “Hero of Princes Risborough” who took off in the B-17 Flying Fortress nicknamed “Miriam” (The plane is believed to have been named after Cosper's mother.) on November 13, 1943 The plane took off from an airbase in Thurleigh, Bedfordshire, UK to perform a daylight bombing raid on boat yards in Bremen, Germany. Soon after leaving the base, however, the Flying Fortress became caught in a storm and began to fall apart. While the nine other crew members aboard the plane bailed out, Cosper remained on board to pilot the plane away from the town on Princes Risborough. He avoided the town and crash landed in a field adjacent to what is now Summerleys Road. Today Cosper is honored in the town he saved, as well as his hometown of Dodd City, Texas where a second memorial was erected in his honor. http://www.txfannin.org/obits.php?per_id=22164