I’ve been home this summer,
recovering from my second-knee replacement in the past seven months. I’ve made
it a habit in the morning to walk down to the mailbox to pick up the morning
paper before breakfast. This past Friday, I noticed an article in the Daily
Hampshire Gazette about a memorial service to be held the next day up on Mount Tom.
It read “On the evening of July 9, 1946, a B-17 flying out
of Goose Bay, Labrador, and carrying 25 servicemen on their way home after
serving in World War II, was preparing to land at Westover Air Force Base. But
rain and darkness cloaked the peak of Mount Tom and, only minutes away from the
airfield, the plane crashed into the south side of the mountain, killing all on
board.”
Both my parents were involved in World War II. My mother and
father both served in the Army Air Force.
She was a nurse and he was a gunner. And, they both came home from the
war and went on with their lives. These twenty-five
servicemen did not get that opportunity. Eighteen were in the Coast Guard, one from the
Red Cross, one a doctor from the U.S. Public Health Service and the rest were
Army Corps.
After reading the article, I decided I’d attend the
memorial. I mean it was on a Saturday, the weather was going to be good, a
shuttle was being offered to get up to the memorial site plus, being up on the
mountain, I knew the view would be breathtaking. What I didn’t know when I made
the decision to attend was that the memorial site, the stone, the service, the
stories shared and the people who attended, would touch a part of me that I
will always keep precious.
From the newspaper article written by Fran Ryan of the Daily Gazette, I learned
that the crash site had gone unmarked until Norman Cote, a Holyoke resident,
convinced Robert Cahillane, then director of Veterans Services in Northampton, to help create a memorial. A committee was formed
that designed what the memorial stone and surrounding area looks like today. The
memorial stone was made from the same stone as the Vietnam Memorial in
Washington, D.C. In 1996, the stone was erected at the crash site.
I had the honor to meet the family of Alfred L. Warm. I met
Al Stettner (named after his uncle) as he drove
me and several other individuals in his four-wheel drive up to the memorial
site. Al also spoke during the service and read the names of all who were killed. I met his sister, Ellen, a rabbi who sang beautifully at the
service. And I met Scott, who gave me a
ride down and back to my car. These three are members of the Stettner family
who have participated at each memorial service for the past 19 years. Their mother, Dorothy, encouraged them to
keep the memory of her brother and the others that died alive for generations
to come and to set up a fund for the site’s perpetual upkeep.
Thanks to the article in the Daily Gazette, 85 people
attended the memorial this year, many more than previous years. Over the years victims’
personal items and remnants of the crash still turn up. Al Stettner now wears
the gold ring that belonged to his uncle. An I.D. bracelet with name and
service number for Daniel Roe was returned to his family. By the memorial stone,
was a small pile of metal pieces from the crash and we were told we could pick
out a piece if we liked. I was told that
the piece I picked for myself was from one of the plane’s engines. The saddest
thing I heard that morning was if the plane had just been 30 feet higher, it
would have missed the mountain peak.
On the memorial stone it reads:
On July 9, 1946 at 10:30 p.m. a B-17 “Flying Fortress”
bringing twenty-five servicemen home crashed at this site. No one survived.
Archilles, David F. S2C
USCG MA
Austin, Wayne L. 1LT USAAC CO
Bailey, Arthur CIV ARC
NE
Benfield, George R. EM3C
USCG TX
Carson, Howard E. PFC USACC NY
Coviello, Pasquale P. LT USPHS NJ
Davenport, Gregory S. SIC USCG RI
Fleming, George E. ETM3C USCG PA
Gillis, Ernest R. RM3C USCG MA
Johnson, Wilfred U. LT USCG NJ
Lebrecht, Henry A. CAPT USAAC NY
Meriam, Frank G. LT
USCG MA
Miller, Arthur C. SIC USCG RI
Orford, George E. LTJG USCG NJ
Roe, Daniel R. SGT USACC AZ
Sanchez, Eulogio PFC USAAC MI
Scott, Russell S. BM2C USCG NJ
Simons, Arnold J. RM3C USCG RI
Tansey, Rex A. PFC USAAC OR
Turrentine, Samuel A. FL
O USAAC SC
Valdrini, Herman J. Jr. FL
O USAAC AZ
Warm, Alfred, L. RM3C USCG NY
Warshaw, Stanley P. SIC USCG NY
Winnard, Lee RM2C USCG MI
Worth, Hugh J. YNC USCG MA
Dedicated July 6,
1996
“THEY WERE ON THEIR
WAY HOME, FOR THEM, WHO DID THEIR VERY BEST, AND NOW IN GOD’S HANDS…AT PEACE”
(Norm Cote)
