Posted on 11/24/2019 5:33:45 AM PST by robowombat
Armer Mountain, AZ Transport Plane Crashes, Dec 1951
Submitted by Stu Beitler
I went with the advance party of an Air Force evacuation team to the summit of Armer Mountain, a 7000-foot peak that juts out of the Sierra Ancha range, 65 miles northeast of Phoenix.
First Lieut. DONALD C. HUMPHREYS of Coolidge, Ariz., Staff Sgt. JOHN WEIS of Pittsburgh and ARNOLD JOHNSON, a cowboy, rode horses to the summit. M/Sgt. RALEIGH D. CURTIS, of Macomb, Ill., T/Sgt. NORMAN C. VAN TASSEL of Warsaw, Mo., and I walked.
The climb was tough all the way. We struggled over icy rocks in running streams that crisscrossed a cattle trail. One section was so rocky the horses had to be led. Near the summit the tiny streams were frozen.
From the crest of the mountain we edged down the face of the cliff on narrow ledges. As we approached the wreckage we had to get down on our hands and knees to make safe progress. We found the first body on a little ledge. It was HALMAR G. MANNING, 23 , of Richmond, Calif.
Then we came upon several bodies lying in a group near a piece of fuselage about 5 by 15 feet. All of the bodies were frozen. They were scattered over a wide area. High over the awful scene a trailing parachute drooped from a tree rooted in the cliff.
Hunks of ice broke off from the cliff and fell among us as we edged around among the bodies and the wreckage. Pieces of the grey uniforms of the West Point cadets, the blue of the Air Force men and the olive drab of the only woman aboard -- a WAF sergeant -- splotched the mountainside. Personal effects and equipment were scattered all over.
Sergeant WEIS, a paratrooper who has been on many rescue and evacuation missions said, "This is the worst I ever saw." It took us 50 minutes of puffing to get to the top. We came down in about 30 minutes.
On the way down we met the first element of the evacuation team from Williams Air Force Base. ARNOLD JOHNSON and other cowboys are going to try to build a trail down the cliff so horses can get to the crash scene and the bodies can be packed out.
19 CADETS MISS ROLL CALL, ONLY THEIR RECORDS REMAIN. Listing of plane victims of the C-47 transport crash: WILLIAM PEDRICK, 22, Cadet First Sergeant. HILMAR G. MANNING, 23, Cadet Sergeant. ROBERT W. BERRY, JR., 19, Sophomore. LEONARD G. DE VILBISS, III, 21, Academic Coach. WILLIAM E. MELANCON, JR., 23, Cadet Lieutenant. HARRY K. ROBERTS, JR., 22, Academic Coach. GUY L. McNEIL, JR., 20, Sophomore. NELSON S. BYERS, 21, Academic Coach. FRANCIS C. CAMILLI, 22, Cadet Sergeant. NOEL S. PERRIN, 20, Sophomore. ALAN C. ABRAHAMSON, 20, Sophomore. WILLIAM F. SHARP, 22, Cadet Sergeant. KARL F. GLASBRENNER, JR., 21, Cadet Captain. WARD B. KEILER, 22, Cadet Sergeant. KENNETH MacARTHUR, 21, Sophomore. RONALD E. ROUNDS, 21, Sophomore. HUGH R. WILSON, 21, Sophomore. HERMAN ARCHER, 21, Sophomore. MAURICE J. MASTELOTTO, 20, Sophomore.
The Oakland Tribune California 1952-01-02
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