Bob Neighbors Robert Otis Neighbors ( November 9 , 1917 – presumed dead August 8 , 1952 ) was a professional baseball player who appeared briefly with Major League Baseball ' s St . Louis Browns in 1939 . He later served as a pilot in the Korean War and was shot down in 1952 , making him the most recent major leaguer to be killed in battle . Baseball career . Born in Talihina , Oklahoma in 1917 , Bob Neighbors had never played baseball — only fast - pitch softball — when he signed with the Siloam Springs , Arkansas Travelers of the Arkansas - Missouri League in 1936 . However , he made the conversion easily , batting . 279 in 118 games with 16 home runs and 86 RBIs . Neighbors produced similar numbers with the Travelers in 1937 , and was called up by the Browns in September , but didn ' t get into a major league game . In 1938 , he joined Palestine , Texas of the East Texas League and hit . 301 in 139 games . The shortstop moved up to Springfield , Illinois of the Class B Three - I League in 1939 , and his 14 home runs and 80 RBIs in 119 games earned him a second late - season call - up to the big club . The 21 - year - old made his major league debut on September 16 , 1939 , and appeared in seven games , getting two hits ( including a home run in Fenway Park off future Browns star Denny Galehouse ) in eleven at - bats . Neighbors returned to the minors in 1940 , batting . 279 for the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association , one step below the majors . In January 1941 , Neighbors married Winifred Wilcox , and the newly married couple moved to San Antonio , where Bob played for the Texas League ' s San Antonio Missions in 1941 . That summer , tragedy struck : while Bob was on the road with the team at the time , Winifred hit by a car and killed . " It had a bad effect on Bob , " his younger brother Morris said . " Bob was on the road and Winnie back home in San Antonio when it happened . He felt that if he had been there - - if he had a job where he wasn ' t traveling - - it wouldn ' t have happened . " Neighbors struggled to a . 216 average and quit organized baseball to join the army . Military career . Neighbors entered military service with the Army Air Force at Tulsa , Oklahoma on May 8 , 1942 . He served with the 22nd Air Transport Training Detachment at Sheppard Field in Wichita Falls , Texas , where he played baseball for the Sheppard Field Mechanics , a team that featured Dave Short of the Chicago White Sox , Ray Poole of the Philadelphia Athletics , Bill Gray of the PCL Hollywood Stars and future big - leaguer Ray Murray . Neighbors later served at Maxwell Air Base in Montgomery , Alabama , where he met his second wife , Katherine " Kitty " Burke . He also served in California at Fairfield - Suisan Army Air Base and Hamilton Field , where he also had the opportunity to play ball . At war ' s end , Bob Neighbors decided against returning to professional baseball , remaining in the military , although he did manage and play for the Maxwell Air Force Base team . Kitty gave birth to a son , Robert Cameron Neighbors , in 1950 . Major Neighbors saw combat duty during the Korean War as a Douglas B - 26B Invader pilot with the 13th Bomb Squadron of the 3rd Bomb Group . On August 8 , 1952 , during a night mission , Neighbors and his crew – First - Lieutenant William Holcom and Staff - Sergeant Grady Weeks – reported they had been hit and were bailing out . There was no further contact and the crew was reported missing in action after failing to return . All hope for Neighbors , Holcom and Weeks was lost after the fighting in Korea ended on July 27 , 1953 , and prisoners were repatriated .