Phillip "Phee" Russell had played basketball, baseball, and football at South Portland High School before graduating in 1939 to attend the University of Maine.

He was commissioned a United States Army Air Forces Second Lieutenant the same month and became a flight instructor at Barksdale Field in Louisiana.

A year later, Russell received permission to visit his wife and 3-month-old daughter in South Portland as part of a long-range training mission.

Six minutes later, his family reportedly heard Russell's voice requesting landing instructions on the airport radio, and saw his A-26B-5 Invader appear briefly out of the fog at an estimated altitude of 200 feet.

[3] The aircraft struck the ground and cartwheeled through a government-operated trailer park housing families of shipyard workers at the New England Shipbuilding Corporation.