Russell Quinn was born and raised in Harrisburg, Oregon. After 2 years in college, he enlisted in the Air Corps a few months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Training as a fighter pilot, he graduated in March 1943 from the Fighter Pilot Training base at Luke Field, near Glendale, Arizona. Sent overseas, he was assigned to the 20th Fighter Group / 77th Fighter Squadron.



On 13 June 1944, flying his 44th mission, Lieutenant Russell G. Quinn was piloting P-38 #44-23174, taking off from Kingscliffe with 47 other pilots. Their objective was to destroy a railway bridge above the river Loire, to the west of the town of Angers. After the attack, the group split in two sections, the first returning to England, the other heading for Brittany (Bretagne) for armed reconnaissance on the coastal road between "Le Cap Fréhel" on the Channel coast and the town of Cherrueix, about 70km to the East.



As Lt Quinn's group were passing over the German airfield at Point-Clos near Gaël, about 45km South of the target area, nearby Flak batteries opened fire. Lieutenant Quinn's P-38 was hit in the right engine and with the Lightning's underbelly aflame was seen to fly on for about 20 km. Losing altitude, he apparently decided to try to crash-land his stricken aircraft, but his P-38 was seen to hit some trees and crash, killing Lt Quinn.



Remains of the plane were found between Le Cassoir and Le Clos-Couët, just outside and to the Northwest of Bréal-sous-Montfort (Ille-et-Vilaine Department, France.) Frenchman Jean-



Paul Favrais, who was nine years old at the time and witnessed the crash, had done extensive research about Lt Quinn. He is President of the Association for the memory of Lt. Russell G. Quinn in Bréal ( http://www.absa3945.com/13%20juin%2044/russel_quinn.html). Through a woman journalist in the United States, he was able to connect with Lt Quinn's sister Patricia, the Quinn family's only survivor.



On 21 May 1995, together with her husband John and their two children, Patricia attended the ceremony for the inauguration of the 'Rue Lieutenant R. G. Quinn', a street named in Bréal in honor of her brother, as well as of the unveiling of a memorial in the shape of a wing that was placed in the locality, just steps away from where Russell Quinn's body was found.



Sadly and to their lifelong despair, Russell Quinn's parents had to endure the loss of both their sons. Russell Quinn’s younger brother Edward Gale Quinn, born in 1922, died only a week after his brother. Edward had enlisted in the Air Corps as an Aviation Cadet on 19 March 1943 in California. After also training as a pilot, Edward was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant. He took off in an A-20 Havoc on 18 June 1944 at 22:30pm on a night combat training flight from Estrella airfield, near Salinas, California. No report was heard from him and extensive research was made in the following days to find traces of him and his aircraft. These were finally found on 30 July 1944 in the wastelands near Parksfield, California. The cause of the accident has not been determined and Edward Quinn's date of death is given as 19 June 1944.



Like their parents, both brothers are buried at the Rest-Haven Memorial Park in Eugene, Oregon, as well as their sister Patricia, who passed away in 2015.