First Lieutenant Bernard Geller

Bernard Geller

First Lieutenant Bernard Geller was shot and killed after arriving at the scene of shots fired call near Naha Air Base in Okinawa, Japan.

A United States airman argued with a local Okinawan and shot the man before stealing his M1 carbine rifle. When First Lieutenant Geller ordered the airman to halt, he was shot and killed. The airman stole Lieutenant Geller's service pistol and wounded another military policeman before escaping. Other military policemen wounded the airman before placing him into custody.

The airman was found guilty of homicide on October 5th and sentenced to death pending review by the United States Air Force and the President of the United States. On December 3, 1954, the death sentence was upheld by the court of military appeals in Washington, DC, pending final review by President Eisenhower. The airman was confined to Fort Leavenworth on June 3, 1955. President Dwight D. Eisenhower commuted the death sentence to 55 years in prison on September 24, 1957.

First Lieutenant Geller was a United States World War II Army veteran and was on his second tour as a commissioned officer, assigned to the 98th Military Police Battalion Headquarters. He is survived by his wife, three daughters, mother, three sisters, and brother, who was a police officer in New York.