Captain Raymond J. Check took off on his twenty-fifth mission, and which should have been the last of his tour, flying Chennault's Pappy III. It was a milk-run bombing mission of a German airfield in Tricqueville, France. A big party was planned for the evening of their return.

During the bomb run, Check's temporary co-pilot, Lt. Col. James W. Wilson (an old squadron leader who wanted to go on Check's final mission), removed his gloves to make some adjustments to the engine. During the final seconds of the bomb run, a German fighter swooped down unnoticed from the sun.

One 20mm cannon shell hit Cap. Check in the neck, exploded and killed him. A fire started in the cockpit, badly burning Wilson's hands. A crewmate put out the fire with an extinguisher. Col. Wilson continued flying with a melted oxygen mask, steering with his arms above the elbows, since his hands were too badly burned. Still under attack, a machine gun bullet hit the box of flares behind the pilot's seat. The flares exploded, created another fire and blew open the bomb bay doors. Fortunately, there was a third pilot on board, Lt. William Cassedy, Check's normal co-pilot, who was acting as a waist gunner that day.

Cassedy replaced Wilson in the co-pilot seat. With only one other uninjured man on board, Cassedy brought Chennault's Pappy III back to base. The radio was out and there were no remaining flares to announce an emergency landing. Instead of landing the plane into the wind as normal, Cassedy purposefully landed the plane downwind against incoming traffic.

He wanted to avoid the reception group waiting to celebrate Check's 25th mission. It included an American army nurse who was going to marry Captain Check the next day.

Raymond Check rests at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial in England, Plot C, Row 4, Grave 41.