Mt. Tom B-17 Memorial Ceremony - July 11, 2015

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)