I was at my first Air Force assignment at Fairchild AFB, WA near Spokane; I was driving to work when I heard the news on the radio about the crash.
I was living in SW Pennsylvania and at work when I heard it on the radio. I had recently bought the “Street Survivors” album with the band members on fire on the front cover. The cover was changed after the crash.
I was making chips at Texas Instruments in Houston.
Serving in the USAF, Charleston AFB SC...
18 years old and completely shocked...
I grew up on southern rock...
Thankfully for you tube, watching most bands from that era are a click away...
Funny story...one of my grand kids had me listen to a great new song he found....
“Free bird”
Wasnt a movie squashed?
I was a senior at the University of Iowa, looking forward to graduation in December.
“Where were you ‘77?”
Getting ready to leave Ft. Riley PCS to TU.
5.56mm
Hand guns are made for killin’
They ain’t no good for nothin’ else
And if you like to drink your whiskey
You might even shoot yourself
So why don’t we dump ‘em people
To the bottom of the sea
Before some ol’ fool come around here
Wanna shoot either you or me
I remember it well. I’m from Jax and several members of the band lived in my sisters neighborhood. I used to ride past their house all the time.
My youngest sister was buried in the same cemetery with those three until vandals tried to get into their crypt and their remains were moved to an undisclosed place. I remember my Mom calling me all upset because she was afraid my sister’s grave had been desecrated as it was near the band members site.
I was in the USAF, stationed at Coleman AAF in Sandhofen, Germany, providing weather support for Army aviation. This was devastating news to me as Lynyrd Skynyrd was/still is one of my favorite bands. I had just bought their album, "Street Survivors", and still have it, with the album cover being eerily prophetic:
remember it as though it were yesterday...i was freshman in high school...just months earlier i had seen the mighty Led Zeppelin, opening night at Madison Square Garden...it was being talked about on the bus in the morning on the way to school- no one was exactly sure what happened, who died or how many died...
I had seen them two or three years earlier at the Ozark Music Festival in Sedalia, the midwest’s version of Woodstock. I was doing the dad thing for my one year old, finished my six years in the Guard the year before, and oblivious to the world around me in many ways. Had a friend a few years later that was related to Van Zant — he shot out his television one night.
Heard them live again in ‘97 with my new love. She said she felt under dressed due to the lack of ink.
I was the platoon leader of a 4.2 mortar platoon in an armor battalion Germany.
I was 24...young married....think we were at Griffiss AFB at the time....the salad days as I recall...wonderful memories...
The first part makes it sound like there was something wrong with the aircraft, but in the end it sounds like they just ran out of fuel. Was there a problem or was it pilot error that cause the crash?
“Oh, won’t you
Gimme three steps, gimme three steps, mister
Gimme three steps towards the door?
Gimme three steps, gimme three steps, mister
And you’ll never see me no more”
For, sure
Starting my first year of college.