Pilot of Experimental Aircraft Killed in Crash

BRAGGS -- A Pryor man was killed Monday afternoon when a small experimental aircraft he was flying hit a power line and crashed at Camp Gruber.

Oklahoma National Guard Staff Sgt. Robert Louis Harding, 45, was pronounced dead at 5 p.m. Monday at St. John Medical Center in Tulsa, where he had been transported following the 12:30 p.m. crash.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. Gary Rogers said Harding's homemade aircraft had been airborne for about one-half mile before clipping the power line and crashing upside down on Central Europe Road.

Col. Charles Frasier, chief of staff of the Oklahoma National Guard, which oversees operations at Camp Gruber, said the Federal Aviation Administration would begin investigating the crash Tuesday morning. Camp Gruber is an Oklahoma National Guard training site.

Harding worked at the Whitaker Education Training Center in Pryor. An employee of Mid-America Aviation in Pryor said Harding was an excellent pilot with more than 20 years flying experience and had at least 100 hours flying time in the light single-engine plane.

The employee, who asked to not be identified, said Harding's plane, while considered experimental, was FAA certified. "My kids have flown with (Harding), a lot of people around here have. I've flown that plane. There was nothing wrong with it," the employee said, adding that he hadn't seen Harding depart Pryor earlier in the day.

From an old thread:

To: golitely,roughrider, OKCSubmariner, LSJohn, Uncle Bill, thinden, All

This morning at 09:00 hours, I received a return phone call from LTC P. Scully, PIO for the Oklahoma Military Department---he gave me the following update: In Sept and Nov, of 1994--DARPA, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, was using the enclosed area for operational research at Camp Gruber---the mission was classified---

His department has researched this series of photo's for the Washington Post, the London Times, and myself--he stated that a sub-contractor of the DARPA project had rented the Ryder truck, and had placed the truck in the enclosed area we see in the photo---he went on to say, that his office had undertaken research during 1997 to verify this photo, and it's origin--and that information had been given in a statement from his office in 1997.

He stated that with assistance from his organization, they had determined that the truck in the photo, was the largest of it's size, around 32 feet, while in testimony during the McVeigh trial, the RyderTruck used in the bombing, given as 20 feet.

He stated his office wanted to make sure the files were available to responsible researchers, and his hopes was to clear up any mistaken idea's, that the Oklahoma Military Department, or Camp Gruber had anything to hide.

He was also aware of the Montana Militia, and Mr. Trockman (sic) had received copies of these photo's, and used them as a basis for speculation.

I feel that my input in this photo matter is closed.

Regards,

Stmoritz

14 Posted on 06/14/2001 07:52:51 PDT by BlueDogDemo (*)

This from someone familiar with Camp Gruber.

Subj: gruber
Date: 9/8/02 4:52:32 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: ANON
To: BARDSQUILL

I began working at Camp Gruber in September 1994 as a security officer for the DARPA project. My employer was Wells-Fargo. I can’t remember by what means I heard of the job but I interviewed with a person from Wells-Fargo in a hotel conference room in Muskogee, OK. I was a CLEET certified security officer and had worked in Tulsa as a contract security officer.

A few days after the interview I was contacted by Wells-Fargo and informed that they had verified my security clearance and I was hired. There were about 10 of us total working as security officers there. Our salary was $12.50/hour. Several of us including myself were in the military reserves. We all met together and were briefed on the sensitivity of the weapons sensor testing project that was in its field testing phase and that testing would take place at Camp Gruber. We were told it would be about a 3- month project. Camp Gruber has lots of training space there and had been home to one of the Army’s Air Assault Schools until summer 1994. It was by no means a secretive compound like I’ve read about in some articles. It was very active in WWII and is used by many Army Reserve and National Guard units for various field training events and marksmanship qualifications. It was also used as a Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) facility. It’s located near Braggs and Muskogee is about 15 miles away from there.

DARPA began constructing the vehicle storage area in September 1994. That was where the aerial photo was taken with the Ryder truck inside the lot. That lot was used to store vehicles that transported equipment that would be tested. It was important to DARPA that the tested vehicle itself and the testing that took place a few miles away remain private and unobserved from anyone. As security officers, our mission was to report any observations both from ground and air. We manned security outposts in 4 locations as I recall. One was right outside the gate of the storage lot, one was at a building we used as our headquarters which I believe was the post commander’s house back in WWII. The last static post was out in a training area on a road leading to the testing area. And the other was a mobile post, we conducted vehicular patrols driving either a Ford Bronco or a red Ford Explorer. We rotated the posts each shift we worked so all of us worked in each one at some point during our week.

I mostly worked the 2-10 PM shift so I observed the Ryder truck and other vehicles returning almost daily from the field testing site to park their trucks back in the lot. Field testing did not take place every day. Sometimes it was weather dependent and other times they conducted night testing. The field testing site had some temporary trailers erected serving as their logistics and office facilities. There were also a set a bleachers there to allow military members and others involved in the project to observe and record the testing. As I recall the majority of all civilian contractors were based out of Virginia and if I remember correctly the vehicle being tested was for the Marines. As security officers, we weren’t informed about every detail of the testing but we were briefed at the beginning that they would test some equipment that would make military vehicles less visible through the sights of enemy combat vehicles, radars, etc. I’m sure by now DARPA either fielded this equipment or cancelled it and it is no longer a classified project.

About the pilot killed there, I hadn’t heard anything about that until I read about it on the internet. During my time there I did observe one or two aircraft flying overhead. I wrote down their tail numbers, turned it in to my supervisor, and I’m not sure what happened after that. I’m sure we just kept it on file in case we needed it later. I’m not sure if the airspace was restricted or not but I didn’t see too may aircraft flying overhead. The majority of any security issues we had was keeping local hunters out of the area both for our safety and to keep the testing unobserved whether intentional or unintentional. Camp Gruber and the surrounding property are very popular deer hunting areas. I worked there from the first day until the last day and don’t recall any breaches of security or any problems there. The sight was dismantled in December 1994 and that was it for the program.

I observed nothing during that time that leads me to believe it had any connection with the OKC bombing. But I will entertain any ideas of theories concerning a possible connection and will think back to my time there and tell what I know. But I do know for sure that any photos taken of the storage lot with the Ryder truck in it was taken sometime between September and December 1994. I never even heard of any connection with the OKC bombing until sometime last year when I ran across it on the internet. Hope this helps and let me know if I can provide any more details. Thanks.

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