Thursday, augusT 27, 2020
ThE OBsErVEr — 5A
CRASH
Continued from Page 1A
Seventy-five years
ago the crew departed
Sioux City, Iowa, and was
returning to its home base
in Walla Walla, Wash-
ington. After stops in
Casper, Wyoming, and
Boise, Idaho, the flight
was on the last leg to
Walla Walla with another
B-24 Liberator following.
Over La Grande, the
pilot of the ill-fated B-24
crew mistook the lights
of the town or those of
Pendleton. This caused
the pilot to get off course,
reduce his altitude and
crash into the Blue Moun-
tains, according David L.
McCurry, author of “Air-
craft Wrecks of the Pacific
Northwest” and among
those who attended Tues-
day’s ceremony.
McCurry said the
second B-24 was bound
for Walla Walla as part of
a formation flight. It was
following the plane that
crashed because its nav-
igation equipment was
not working. It almost
went down as well, but
its pilot, First Lt. Horace
W. Lehman, managed to
pull up just in time but not
before clipping some trees
that damaged a wingtip.
The plane later landed
safely in Walla Walla,
where its crew reported
the crash in Union County.
The B-24 crashed Aug.
25 at about 11:30 p.m.
A search flight found
the wreckage Aug. 26
at 10 a.m.. Ground par-
ties did not reach the site
until 4 p.m. that day, said
Armen Woosley of La
Grande, who helped orga-
nize the ceremony.
Rich Cason of Elgin
attended Tuesday’s cer-
emony. He said he was 9
when he went to the crash
that morning seven-and-a-
half decades ago with his
father, who directed traffic
at the site as a state road
department employee.
“There was junk every-
where and MPs (military
Staff photo by Ronald Bond
Shown is a piece of a B-24 Liberator that crashed on Aug. 25, 1945, in the mountains
about 17 miles outside of Elgin. The aircraft was carrying 15 servicemen returning
home following World War II. All 15 men died. La Grande residents Armen Woosley
and Lyle Schwarz organized the service to remember the lives of the men who per-
ished in the crash.
police) were all around,”
said Cason, now a retired
educator.
Cason said he still
remembers seeing a leg
from one of the victims
being buried at the site.
Today, the meadow the
B-24 crashed in appears
barren, but look closely
and small poignant rem-
nants are around. Pieces
of pottery from England
remain. Woosley said he
believes the pottery may
have been gifts the ser-
vicemen were taking
back to their families. It
is a symbol of the men’s
humanity, the memories of
which Woosley, McCurry
and many others at the
ceremony want to revive.
“These men could
easily have been heroes
if they had made it home.
Instead they are forgotten.
I want to help keep their
names alive, That is my
purpose,” McCurry said.
The author said the
timing and and the youth
of the victims multi-
ples the magnitude of the
tragedy.
“They had just sur-
vived the war and then
this happened,” McCurry
said. “They had their
whole lives to live.”
The crash, just eight
days before WWII ended,
was one of 52,651 state-
side aircrafts crashes
www.lagrandeautorepair.com
Continued from Page 1A
Rattlesnake Fire also is
burning just north of the
Oregon-Washington border.
The Indian Creek Fire near
Juntura has burned close to
50,000 acres, according to
inciweb.nwcg.gov, and the
Frog Fire just east of Bend
has burned about 4,000.
The rest have so far burned
less than 1,500 acres each.
Multiple agencies are
coordinating on fire sup-
pression of the Meacham
Complex, including the
United States Forest Ser-
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of the Umatilla Indian Res-
ervation, local volunteer
fire departments and aerial
resources.
“Many of the smaller
fires within the southern
branch of the Meacham
Complex are contained and
in patrol status or have been
declared out,” according
to the Wednesday update
on the complex from the
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“At present, the more active
fires in the Meacham Com-
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Hager Ridge Fire, 896
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the Rattlesnake Fire.”
Crews on the Hager
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during the course of
WWII, which in all
claimed 14,903 lives,
according to Lyle Schwarz
of La Grande, who helped
organize the Tuesday
ceremony.
McCurry said the acci-
dents probably reflected
the limited navigation
equipment planes such as
the B-24 Liberators had.
All pilots essentially had
for guidance were altitude
indicators and magnetic
and radio compasses.
B-24 Liberators also
were difficult to fly
because their flight con-
trols lacked good hydrau-
lics and required consid-
erable strength to operate,
Woosley said. McCurry
said this problem was
compounded by the need
to have smaller men flying
B-24s so that they could
more easily move around
inside the bombers.
“Being small was a big
help,” McCurry said.
What caused the
crash near Spout Springs
remains unknown, but
investigators have deter-
mined the path of the
crash. Woosley said it first
hit trees and then plowed
into the landscape, cre-
ating a trench that bull-
dozers later filled in with
dirt. Today, the former
trench likely has bits and
pieces of human remains.
Much else also is buried
there.
“It is truly a gravesite,”
Woosley said.
The crash site today is
relatively inauspicious, but
McCurry said he hopes
someday a memorial with
a plaque honoring the
15 servicemen who died
there can be installed.
“It would be appreci-
ated by the families (of the
victims),” McCurry said.
About 80 people
attended Tuesday’s cere-
mony, including about 30
from the National Guard.
Rev. Roger Cochran, the
pastor of Trinity Baptist
Church, provided opening
and closing prayers and
the invocation. Cochran
spoke of the steep price
we have paid for our
freedom and how nobody
has paid a steeper one than
the victims of the crash —
men who were on the cusp
of new beginnings.
“They were so close,”
Cochran said, “yet so far.”
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