Veterans Day, Nov 11, 2000

How did you spend you veterans day?  I'm sure in the past I just would have watched my S.U. football team battle against a rival, or some other trivial activity but yesterday's Veterans day can be summed up in a number, 50-334.  This is not any secret code word from the battle of the Normandy, but the aircraft number from a T33-A jet that Daryl and Susie's dad, Major Charles H. Imschweiler crashed in back on August of 1951.


T33 in Flight

Today I wanted it to be a "hand meets metal" day where we could actually touch part of the plane.  Since last year we have been looking for pieces of the plane with no hard evidence.  We had however been spreading the word, and we thought we may have found someone who had a few pieces of the wreckage.  A lady named Charlotte was supposed to have some pieces of the plane in her barn.  On my way up from Syracuse in my Ford Mustang, I went through areas of light showers and I prayed that we would not get rained out.  Actually the weather was not so bad for this time of year, the temp was about 45 degrees, and we could deal with a little dampness.

Our plan was again to meet at the Buffalo Head in Forestport and head up to Charlotte's house from there.  I went inside the restaurant to see if anyone had arrived.  I told the hostess that we were going to look for airplane parts, and she said "you must be going to Charlotte's house."  Talk about having the word spread around.  Apparently Melissa was Charlotte's sons girlfriend, and she had just heard the day before.  Daryl and Susie showed up a little after noon and shortly after that Annie, Tasha, and Ashley arrived in their car.

As we headed up the road to see the wreckage I wondered what we would see.  Would it be a couple of scraps of metal?  Would we be able to make a positive identification?  Daryl said the plane had some chartreuse on it so I hoped that would help.  We introduced ourselves to Charlotte and her Daughter Sue and we went to the barn.  As they opened the barn we were astonished. 

They had several pieces of airplanes, a canopy, part of the tail or wing, and part of the main body of the plane.  The canopy had several markings on it including emergency escape instructions.  It stated "EMERGENCY ESCAPE INSTRUCTIONS"

  1. 1.  LEAN FORWARD AND PULL RIGHT HAND GRIP TO EJECT CANOPY

  2.  WARNING  LOWER HEAD AS FAR AS POSSIBLE

  3. 2.  PULL UP LEFT HAND GRIP
    3.  HOOK HEELS IN FOOTRESTS & BRACE ARMS ON ARMRESTS
    4.  SIT ERECT WITH HEAD ON HEADREST

  4. 5.  SQUEEZE TRIGGER

As the pilot was trying to bail out, I could not get out of my head that these instructions were the last thing he read.  My data on the crash led me to believe that the pilots were trying to bail out, and the plane crashed before that was possible.

 

 

 

 

 

From the official crash report we know the aircraft number to be 50-334, and the 033 are part of it.  also the green above the .S. AIR FO confirms what Daryl stated about the colors of the plane.  These pieces were definitely a piece of the plane.  When you compare to the original photo of Daryl and Susie's mom at the scene of the plane you can compare for yourself.

 

   

 

 It was now time to go back in the woods to see if we could locate any wreckage ourselves.    It was hunting season so we were a little aprehensive to go to the crash site.  It was both deer and bear season so we wanted to be careful.  We went back to Tasha's house to get on our boots.  Many people who went to the scene of the crash back in 1951 stated the path was opposite the house with the drawing of a cat on a rock.  I had tried to see the "Cat on the rock house" many times before.  We looked again and spotted the rock.  Even after 50 years the cat still exists. 

We went down the logging road towards the crash site.  The road was slightly improved but still rough.  The Christmas Tree campgrounds were completely gone as well as any other landmark.  In one's years time all vehicles and trucks we used as markers had been removed.  Makes finding your way around kind of tough.  We parked the car near the gate and started walking in.  We figured that if we were killed by hunters, the next generation would walk in looking for signs of Daryl's truck.  "Here is part of the door, and look at this license plate", they would say.  We decided if the shooting got close, we'd leave.  We saw no cars on our way in, so we gave it a try. 

We went to the spot where Daryl planted her flag last fall, but could find no sign of it.  We looked around for a short while and then Susie planted her flag in a tree trunk near the spot we think the plane crashed.  I wanted to bring my bag pipe I learned how to play so I could play "Amazing Grace" for the two lost pilots.  Here is a link to the song if you wish.  Next time we go I'll bring it.  We'll do more research, and maybe next time we can find more pieces. grace.wav