SPECIAL THANK YOU: THE WIDOWS OF MAJOR RICHARD HOLCOMBE (DIRECTOR OF TRAINING AT BAAF SUMMER 1944) AND LT. GEORGE LEITNER (BASE PHOTOGRAPHER AT BAAF SUMMER 1944) ARE TO THANK FOR THE MANY PICTURES WE NOW HAVE OF BRUNING ARMY AIR FIELD AND P-47 FLYING TRAINING AT BAAF.  THESE PHOTOS WERE NOT KNOWN TO EXIST UNTIL 2009.  PATRICK O'MALLEY, BROTHER OF LT. BERNARD O'MALLEY, PROVIDED THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF EACH PILOT KILLED IN THIS TRAGEDY.  WE THANK THEM FOR THEIR GENEROSITY.

 2010:  UNDER CONSTRUCTION
UPDATED:  MAY 19, 2010


In the Summer of 1944, a small Army Air Corps base in south-central Nebraska was home to the 262nd Fighter Pilot Training School.  Bruning Army Air Field (BAAF) had once been host to heavy bomber groups which had since left the Plains and were dying in droves as  they flew unescorted missions over the oil fields of Romania.

Newly commissioned pilots and veteran P-51 Mustang pilots were being sent to BAAF to train in the faster, more powerful P-47 Thunderbolt.  That Spring pilots were being killed in training at BAAF at a rate that was unacceptable to the Air Corps.  In July, 1944, COL. C.D. McAllister was sent to BAAF to take over as Post Commander and put a stop to these disasters.  He was 50 years old and had been flying since 1923.

In the evening of August 3, 1944, a C-47 transport plane left BAAF enroute to Pierre, South Dakota to complete P-47 gunnery training.  On board were 27 pilots and a flight surgeon.  They would never arrive.  At 20:25 hours, all 28 were killed when the plane broke apart in a severe storm over the Sandhills of northern Nebraska.  To this day it remains the worst military air disaster on US soil.

LINKS:  P-47 Pilots Assoc (inactive) aviation archaeology  EOD Memorial 

If you have a link you would like listed here, please contact me.

THE LOST AIRMEN

C-47 FLIGHT CREW

CPT STANLEY MEADOWS:  PILOT

CPT ROBERT BOHLE: CO-PILOT

SGT ORSON HUTSLAR:  CREW CHIEF

PASSENGERS

CPT LESLIE B. (ROBBINOVITZ) ROBERTS
(FLIGHT SURGEON)

LT WILLIAM ACREE
F/O JOHN ALBERT
LT WILLIAM ARMSTRONG
LT MILLARD ARNETT, JR.
LT HERBERT BLAKESLEE
LT JACK BROWN
LT RICHARD BROWN
LT JAMES BURKE, JR
LT GEORGE BOECKMANN
LT DONALD CLARKSON
LT ARTHUR JOHNSON
LT LLOYD HEMPHILL
LT CLAYTON JOLLEY
LT LEONARD JOLLEY
LT GERALD KELLER
LT JACK LYTLE
LT ROBERT NESBITT
LT BERNARD O'MALLEY
LT ANTHONY PALADINO
LT BRUCE PATTERSON
LT LELAND POPE
LT CHARLES PORTER
LT PAT ROBERTS, JR
LT LEVON SEHORN
(P-47 FIGHTER PILOTS)



DOUGLAS C-47 PARKED IN HANGAR AT STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND MUSEUM OUTSIDE OMAHA, NEBRASKA

JULY 1944
THE BEGINNING OF THE END

IN EARLY JULY, 1944, A P-47 THUNDERBOLT AND A B-17 FLYING FORTRESS WERE PRACTICING COMBAT ATTACK MOVES OVER BAAF WHEN THE THUNDERBOLT FLEW TOO CLOSE TO THE HEAVY BOMBER, COLLIDING IN MID-AIR.  THE FIGHTER ATTEMPTED TO MAKE A STRAFING RUN ON THE CO-PILOT'S SIDE OF THE COCKPIT BUT WAS UNABLE TO PULL UP IN TIME TO AVOID HITTING THE BOMBER.  THE P-47 PILOT WAS KILLED, AS WERE SEVEN CREWMEN ABOARD THE B-17.  SURVIVING CREWMEN'S AFFIDAVITS DESCRIBE THE HORRIBLE EVENT IN DETAIL.

THIS ACCIDENT WAS ONE OF MANY THAT  TOOK PLACE IN THE SPRING AND EARLY SUMMER OF 1944.  COL CHARLES B. STEAD WAS BASE COMMANDER AT THE TIME.  HE WAS NO STRANGER TO AERONAUTICAL ACCIDENTS.

IN 1938 CHARLES B. STEAD, A WWI AVIATION VETERAN, WAS EMPLOYED BY UNITED AIRLINES AS A CIVILIAN PILOT.  ON THE NIGHT OF NOVEMBER 28, HE TOOK OFF FROM PORTLAND, OREGON ENROUTE TO SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA.  HE WAS FLYING A DC-3, THE CIVILIAN VERSION OF THE ARMY AIR CORPS C-47.  IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS OF NOVEMBER 29, STEAD WAS OFF COURSE, LOST AND OUT OF FUEL.  HE CRASHED INTO THE ROCKY CLIFFS OFF POINT REYES, CALIFORNIA, KILLING HIS CO-PILOT, STEWARDESS, AND THREE OF FOUR PASSENGERS. 







EXTENSIVE INTERVIEWS WITH SEVERAL PILOTS STATIONED AT BAAF THAT SPRING AND SUMMER SEEM TO SUGGEST A COMMAND THAT WAS FOCUSED ON RIGID MILITARY TRADITIONS, SUCH AS MARCHING AND BARRACKS INSPECTIONS, RATHER THAN FLYING TRAINING AND SAFETY.  THESE PILOTS ALSO SUGGEST THERE WAS BASE-WIDE DISRESPECT FOR COL STEAD'S LEADERSHIP STYLE, OR PERHAPS THE "LACK THERE OF".  FOLLOWING THE TRAGIC P-47 AND B-17 COLLISION, COL CD MCALLISTER ARRIVED TO RELIEVE STEAD OF HIS COMMAND.   IRONICALLY, LESS THAN 30 DAYS AFTER MCALLISTER'S ARRIVAL, MORE PILOTS WOULD BE KILLED ON THE NIGHT OF AUGUST 3 THAN ALL OF THE TRAINING DEATHS COMBINED UNDER COL STEAD.

BAAF FLIGHT LINE CIRCA SPRING 1944 (FACING NORTH).  HANGARS #1 AND #2 ARE IN THE MIDDLE, HANGAR #3 IS IN THE DISTANCE FACING THE CAMERA.  P-47s LINE THE PAD, WHILE THE C-47 IS PARKED AT FAR LEFT.

HANGAR #3 APRIL 2009:  HOME TO CATTLE AND GOATS.  THE CONCRETE SUPPORTS WERE ADDED YEARS LATER WHEN IT WAS USED TO STORE GRAIN.  DESPITE ITS APPEARANCE, THE INTERIOR SUPPORT BEAMS ARE IN PERFECT CONDITION.


HANGARS #1 AND #2 APRIL 2009:  BOTH HAVE COMPLETELY COLLAPSED AND REMAIN IN A HEAP OF RUBBLE.

THE 262ND FIGHTER PILOT TRAINING SCHOOL (FPTS) COMMAND STAFF AT BAAF JUNE 4, 1944. 

BACK ROW, 2nd FROM LEFT IS MAJ RICHARD HOLCOMBE, DIRECTOR OF TRAINING.  3rd FROM LEFT IS CPT STANLEY MEADOWS, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF TRAINING.
 FRONT ROW FAR LEFT IS CPT ROBERT BOHLE, COMMANDER, 2nd SQUADRON.  NEXT TO CPT BOHLE IS CPT HAGENBACK, FAMOUS FOR FLYING THE "BAT OUTTA HELL".  ALL HAVE JUST RETURNED FROM COMBAT DUTY IN ALASKA, EUROPE AND NORTH AFRICA.  PHOTO WAS TAKEN BY LT. GEORGE LEITNER.

JULY 1944
HOPE FOR A NEW DAY
WITH THE ARRIVAL OF COL. CHARLES DAWSON MCALLISTER WAS THE HOPE FOR A NEW DAY DAWNING AT BRUNING ARMY AIR FIELD.  HIS DAUGHTER, JEAN, REMEMBERS SPENDING A WEEK AT BAAF IN THE SUMMER OF 1944.  SHE SPENT MOST OF IT RIDING HORSEBACK, AS THERE WAS REALLY NOTHING MORE FOR A YOUNG GIRL TO DO IN THE SMALL, ISOLATED TOWN.  SHE AND HER MOTHER KNEW COL MCALLISTER'S ASSIGNEMENT WAS TDY (TEMPORATY DUTY), SO THEY MAINTAINED THEIR PERMANENT HOME IN FLORIDA.  THAT VISIT IN THE SUMMER OF 1944 WOULD BE THEIR FIRST, AND LAST, TRIP TO BRUNING, NEBRASKA.

MCALLISTER WAS ALSO NO STRANGER TO AERONAUTICAL MISHAPS.  IN THE MID 1920S, HE WOULD SURVIVE A MID-AIR COLLISION WITH NO OTHER THAN CHARLES LINDBERGH.  HE AND LINDY WOULD CROSS PATHS THREE TIMES IN THEIR LIFETIME. 

LINK TO LIFE MAGAZINE ARTICLE


Lt Lindbergh (L) and Lt McAllister circa 1923

MCALLSITER WAS ALSO INVOLVED IN STRATOSPHERE BALLOON FLIGHTS IN SOUTH DAKOTA IN THE 1930S.  AFTER SERVING HIS COUNTRY IN WW1, HE RETURNED TO CIVILIAN LIFE IN FLORIDA.  THAT SEEMED TO OFFER FEWER CHALLENGES THAN BEING A PILOT IN THE AIR CORPS, SO HE SOON RE-ENLISTED.  HE COMMANDED AN AIR BASE IN NEW MEXICO AND FLEW COMBAT MISSIONS IN NORTH AFRICA AND ITALY BEFORE BEING SENT TO BAAF.  HE HAD BEEN FLYING SINCE 1923.  MANY PILOTS WHO TRAINED AT BAAF REFER TO HIM AS "A TOUGH SON OF A BITCH, BUT HE WAS FAIR."  MCALLISTER WAS QUICK TO DISCIPLINE A YOUNG PILOT WHOSE EGO AND INEXPERIENCE WAS BECOMING DANGEROUS.  HE WAS QUICK TO TEACH AND OFFER HIS EXPERIENCE TO THOSE WHO WANTED TO LISTEN AND LEARN.  MANY PILOTS INTERVIEWED STATED THAT, AS TOUGH AS HE WAS, HE MADE THEM BETTER PILOTS. 


COL MCALLISTER (CENTER) WITH TWO UNIDENTIFIED OFFICERS (BAAF 1944)

RESEARCH ASSISTANCE NEEDED:

LT PHILIP F. ANDERSON (CHAPLAIN):  BORN 1913 AND ENLISTED IN 1942.  CHAPLAIN AT BAAF SUMMER 1944

CPT RICHARD N. BEATY (AIR INSPECTOR): BORN 1917 IN THE DALLAS, TX AREA. ENLISTED OCTOBER 1942. ARMY SERIAL # 18178703

LT LIVIO CASTELLI (BASE PHOTOGRAPHER): POSSIBLY BORN IN ITALY CIRCA 1917 AND CAME TO AMERICA JUST PRIOR TO WWII.  ENLISTED IN ARMY IN LOS ANGELES, CA 26 SEP 41. SERIAL # 39164230.  DIED IN LOS ANGELES, CA 1983

2010 UPDATES

FAMILY CONNECTION:  September 18th will be the first ever gathering of families of the victims, as well as veterans and families of BAAF.  It will take place in Auburn, California.  Please RSVP by July 1st iif you are interested in attending.