Connecticut western news., 1920-03-11
FORMER CANAAN BOY
 KILLED IN AEROPLANE
Lieutenant John Greer Meets Death On Texas
 Field

This town was greatly surprised and shocked to learn on last Thurs day of the death of Lieutenant John Greer of Millerton, who formerly resided here with his parents for number of years. He was the son of MT. and Mrs. Edward Greer ot Millerton, N. Y, and was 23 years of age. MT. Greer, ST., is a passen- ger conductor on the c. N. E. Rail road and a former resident of this town.
 Newspaper dispatches told of his meeting death on Thursday, but not giving his place of residence, few people who saw them believed it was the Lieut.. Greer they knew. The parents of the aviator received a telegram telling of the accident and death of their son on Thursday and a Sanderson, Texas, dispatch says that Lieut.. Greer, an aviator from Kelley Field, San Antonio, was killed Wednesday at Watkins, Texas, when a severe windstorm sent his machine crashing to earth. Five other aviators in company with Lieut.. Greer started for the Mexican border, when the severe grindstorm came up suddenly and only one of the five made safe landing. Lieut.. Greer was killed and the other three received serious injuries.
 Lieut.. Greer was stationed at Mineola, L. I. in 1918 and 1919 and made several trips by air to his home in Millerton. On Thanksgiving day, Nov. 28, 1918, he flew from Mineola to Millerton and ate Thanksgiving dinner with his wife and his parents He had made landings at Canaan and at the Hotchkiss school, Lake vile. Lieut.. Greer and his wife and child went to Texas late last fall.
 Lieut.. Greer was on his way to France when the armistice was signed and the contingent of which he was a member received an order by wireless to return to the states, being on the ocean three days.
 On Memorial Day of last year Lieut.. Greer landed his machine here and took part in the ball game between Canaan and Housatonic. Agairr on August IZth he flew co Canaan and gave wonderful exhi- bition of looping-the-loop and other stunts at what seemed to be dan- gerously low altitude. Just before Labor Day he came to Canaan and asked to be permitted to play with the local team against Philmont at Lakeville and covered third base in that game. He was apparently as interested in Canaan as ever and told the manager of the team that he could get the entire Millerton team as substitutes if needed.
 Lieut.. Greer was an unusually cool and daring young aviator. Naturally of a modest disposition he would say little about his work in the air. When asked last summer if he was not afraid on some of his trips, he replied that he was not, but an aviator never knew when some thing would happen to cause him to lose control, which would probably mean death.
 While at his home in Millerton last summer Lieut.. Greer succeeded in obtaining six recruits for the aviation service. Two of them being his brothers, Charles, at present in Honolulu, and Martin, now located in the Philippines. Besides his parents, Lieut.. Greer is survived by his wife and one child, two brothers and two sisters. The body was brought to Millerton on Tuesday and the fu- neral was held from his late home in Millerton on Wednesday morning and the body placed in the vault. In the spring, on the deceased avia- tors birthday, May 18th, it is planned to hold military interment ceremony.