War Hero Piloted Flaming Truck into Creek
In June 1961, Gale B. Cohill of Clear Spring – then a Democrat member of the Maryland House of Delegates – committed an impromptu act of heroism on the family farm that may have impressed even the General Assembly. While Cohill was helping spray the orchards at Stafford Hall, the slave-built estate where he grew up, the blower on one of the spray trucks ignited, and one of its three motors caught fire. At risk were the other two motors and the gas tank. If those went up, too, the farm workers would have an inferno on their hands. Most people, confronted with such a situation, would run away from the burning truck. Cohill ran toward it, hopped into the cab, and drove the flaming truck straight toward Conococheague Creek. His thought, to the extent that thought was involved, was to douse the fire by driving into the water. Between truck and creek, however, was a closed gate. When Cohill stopped to open the gate (picture, for a moment, doing that, then getting back in ), ...