1953 Plane Crash on Campus?

10,340 Views | 41 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by ABATTBQ87
SmoothRuckus
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My boss, Ag '57 was just telling me about this plane crash on campus during his freshman year right before the Texas game. He said an Aggie, just a year or so after graduating, was making a cross-country flight on a T-something or other single engine plane. Said he red-lined it diving down towards the bonfire (then on drill field; as a joke or to show off or whatnot) and the plane's wings flew off as it disintegrated into pieces. Apparently they were finding pieces of the plane and the pilot on campus for weeks.

I cannot find anything about it online except this:

http://www.agtimes.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=63489&sid=3f2e39672c4bd034f93bfedc040a610e

Anyone seen an article or heard about this? Seems like something I would have heard about.
aalan94
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Actually, the story I heard was that it was t.u. students trying to prematurely light the bonfire somehow.

That sounds just as much of an urban legend as your version, so it may not be true.

The common elements being the plane was flying over bonfire and it broke up. So there's probably at least that much that is true.
terata
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Hey, lads, it was a plane from tu and it was shot down by Ags manning an early Hawk battery.
Aggies Revenge
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Terata, I heard that we used '03 and a load of nails like a shotgun and took the plane out.

How they got that damn thing on top of Dorm 10 I will never know.
fossil_ag
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I recall that incident ... but I seem to recall it happening in the Fall of 1952, my Fish year, but I may be a year off in the memory game (my memory cells got jangled by a stroke last year.)

As I recall the alert want out about the end of CQ that "T-sips were on Sully" .... the general alarm that something was amiss at Bonfire Site. It meant drop everything you are doing and get to the Bonfire site immediately.

Like every other Fish I ran into that night, I was barefoot, in my skivies and had picked up a tree limb for a weapon to to battle with whatever enemy appeared.

When we arrived on the Drill Field (now called Simpson) we just found hundreds of fellows milling. No one knew anything at that time, just rumors and kids speculating. Finally in the vicinity of the old 1950s era rodeo grounds (where Olsen Field is today) we finally got bits and pieces of the story about the airman from Kingsville NAS.

I complement the person telling this tale correcly and for the person knowing about the old rodeo grounds .... those are important bits of history.

Edit: The reason for our confusion I suppose was there was no evidence of what had happened on the Drill Field ... just the drop tanks in the vicinity of the stack (which we thought must be bombs!)

It was the next day before a reporter from the BATT pieced the story together that the plane had just pulled out of a power dive, the wings has snapped off from excessive g-forces, but it had enought upward momentum to propel it over the RR track and to crash near the rodeo grounds.

There was not a lot of follow up news on this story. Recall this was in 1952, not long after WWII, the plane was military and we did not discuss things discuss things of that nature openly (out of habit I suppose.)


[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 6/17/2009 8:27a).]
phatbc
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the fossil speaks, and so it is written
Whitesnake
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Fossil.

But I have no idea what NAS is.
Pro Sandy
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NAS = Naval Air Station
Apache
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quote:
had picked up a tree limb for a weapon to to battle with whatever enemy appeared.
SmoothRuckus
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Odd that I cannot find anything online about it. Seems like a big deal.
Fly Army 97
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Well, it WAS 1953 and College Station.
Humbert Humbert II
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looks like it was 1954 according to the class of 58er on the GB.

quote:
AG of 1958
user level: ProAggiePremium Level Supporter posted 9:10a, 06/17/09this user's public profilesend private message to useredit this replyobject to this reply



The crash in question took place in November of 1954 just after the conclusion of the Texas A&M vs Texas freshmen football game. Crow and company were the fish that beat Texas; it was Coach Bryant's first year as coach at TAM.

The plane went into a power dive over the main drill field where the bonfire was under construction. When the pilot, as I remember was Navy, the wings came off; the main part of the plane sailed over the railroad tracks and came to rest in what's now the West Campus.

The main landing gear came to rest on the lawn of the MSC; as a fish my Tack Officer, Col Percy Goff, took me with him to view the wreckage and the dead pilot.

Because the fish won the game we "got our our hair" back. In those long ago days the fish played a five game schedule; they were not part of the varsity.

John C. Mayfield, Jr. '58

http://www3.gendisasters.com/texas/11598/college-station-tx-navy-plane-crashes-nov-1954
CanyonAg77
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Link one

quote:
2 KINGSVILLE NAVY MEN KILLED IN CRASH AT A & M.

College Station, Nov. 20. -- (AP) -- A Kingsville Navy training plane exploded over the Texas A. & M. College campus here tonight, killing two occupants of the plane and spraying parts of the campus with wreckage.
Names of the victims were withheld pending notification of next-of-kin.
Officials at Bryan Air Force Base said the propeller-driven T28 was from Kingsville Naval Auxilliary Air Station. It had been refueled at Bryan and taken off shortly before the crash.
The plane wreckage fell in a muddy field about 1/4 mile southwest of the campus after several persons heard an explosion.
Debris from the craft fell over portions of the campus jammed with students guarding a traditional bonfire that precedes the A & M - Texas football game.
A part of the plane identified as coming from either the tail assembly or a wing fell near the bonfire.
There were no reports of students injured.
A crowd estimated at 2,000 persons, most of them students of A & M, gathered around the crash scene.
The public information office at Bryan AFB said the plane landed there early today and took off again at 7:18 p.m. The crash was reported at 7:34 p.m.
E. V. ADAMS, a Bryan resident and member of the A & M faculty, said he heard a plane that sounded as if it were in trouble pass over his house a few minutes before the crash.

The Corpus Christi Cutter-Times Texas 1954-11-21

LIST OF FATALITIES.
Taken from the Fresno Bee Republican California 1954-11-22

Marine Captain THOMAS PRYOR, pilot, 24, of San Francisco.
ROBERT ANTHONY VERDUCO, naval aviation cadet, 22, of Laredo, Tex.


Note they quote Col. Adams, the Aggie Band director.
fossil_ag
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I will not quibble over the dates of '52,'53 or '54 ... memories fade over a period of time regardless how we treat them. Most folks my age would not bet money on the accuracy of their memories of events 60 years ago.
Aggies Revenge
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Speaking of which...

Fossil, how excited were the students when they switched from enfield muzzle loaders to the Krags?
terata
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quote:
How they got that damn thing on top of Dorm 10 I will never know


Never underestimate the power of a Corps team when aroused.
fossil_ag
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You fellows do not seem to understand that A&M in the 1950s took on the appearance and attitude of an armed camp about a month before Bonfire.

I never heard factual stories behind the defensive preparations and posture but I always assumed that a band of Teasips invaded the Bonfire some time in prehistory that brought on the custom of lifetime vigilance. I just recall we had guardfires a round all campus monuments with wild eyed Fish acting as guardians. Bonfire site had about six rings of guard fires around it with serious looking kids with clubs walking around.

As Fish, we bought into the upperclassman hype about the threat to the Aggie Way Of Life posed by Teasippers and we were ready to defend the honor.

(The only persons at risk of life and limb to Aggie Fish overreaction were embers of the Aggie Fish football team who made sport out of spoofing Bonfire guards in the middle of the night. Old buddy Billy Pete Huddleston barely escaped in a few of forays he described.)

Wild times.


[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 6/17/2009 1:49p).]
Build It
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quote:
the threat to the Aggie Way Of Life posed by Teasippers and we were ready to defend the honor.


Great stuff! New Army has know idea the way relations are supposed to be between us and them.
aalan94
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quote:
The Corpus Christi Cutter-Times Texas 1954-11-21


Caller-Times.
LTC77
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Aggie Revenge, you had better be nice to Fossil Ag. When I has drilling at A & M in 76, we were still using M-14 rifles and not the M-16 models. The military never gives ROTC the good stuff, only hand me downs.
Aggies Revenge
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LTC I know all about that. The shotgun that was issued to me in Italy in 95 was originally placed on the books in 1967. It was a very sexy Winchester that I was more than happy to have. (The mossbergs were always breaking down)


Last year while I was still working at the Sheriff's Office we finally got issued our much promised AR-15s. Turns out the were Oklahoma National Guard M-16A1s that had the full auto removed. After years of using the A2, holding the A1 seemed like a dinosaur.
MLK_87
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My father (Class of '57) talked about the incident once or twice. He remembered it as being a dive-bombing raid/bonfire buzz that went horribly
He saved articles and clippings, so the next time I'm at my mother's, I'll look through his yearbooks.
TERRY L
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[This message has been edited by TERRY L (edited 6/20/2009 2:04a).]

[This message has been edited by TERRY L (edited 6/21/2009 12:25a).]
APwarrior
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[This message has been edited by APwarrior (edited 6/20/2009 9:57p).]
Gunner90'
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I was there very close, actually I was the closest, to the Great Plane Crash of 1987. Scared the crap out of me. I can verify that the wing section was knocked completely off, there were no survivors in the crash, and the pilot walked away intact.

I was a freshman on the lacrosse club, and we were playing Baylor (or maybe it was Southwestern) near the polo field. As a freshman/rookie, I was spending the third quarter behind one of the end lines, chasing bad shots and passes and making sure there were always balls available for play to continue.

Well, the action was down at the other end at the time, so I was just kind of standing around following the game. All of a sudden -- WHAM! About 15 or 20 yards from me in the back corner of the playing field a good size remote control airplane nosedived straight into the ground.

I think it almost startled the crap out of me, as well as the goalie, attack and defense men on that half of the field. The ref called time, and we carried to plane in two pieces of the field. I'd say it had a five- or six-foot wingspan. Play resumed after some laughing and joking.

About five minutes later, as play was back on the other end, some dude came walking up to me and asked me if I'd seen a plane. I just pointed my stick at the pile of wreckage. He gathered up the mess and went his way.

Yes, the campus is full of history. Any I'm involved in is obviously trivial.
Don Rice
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The airplane crash did take place in the latter part of 1954. I was the last air policeman at the scene when the wreckage was picked up and removed from the site. In fact I found a finger on the ground after the wreckage was removed. I believe the airplane crashed very close to a dormitory building. It was Navy T28 type trainer, single engine, propeller, two place airplane. I then escorted the tractor trailer back to Bryan AFB where the airplane was unloaded and I then turned the finger, found at the crash scene,over to my desk sergeant. Don Rice
The Original AG 76
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quote:
The airplane crash did take place in the latter part of 1954. I was the last air policeman at the scene when the wreckage was picked up and removed from the site. In fact I found a finger on the ground after the wreckage was removed. I believe the airplane crashed very close to a dormitory building. It was Navy T28 type trainer, single engine, propeller, two place airplane. I then escorted the tractor trailer back to Bryan AFB where the airplane was unloaded and I then turned the finger, found at the crash scene,over to my desk sergeant. Don Rice
Dr. Rice ??
ABATTBQ87
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My dad was a fish that fall and has told the story.
fossil_ag
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I am still around an still stick by my statements in the story.
EMY92
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Always great to see an appearance by fossil_ag!
Aggie63
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I too recall the airplane crash event. As I recall, the immediate rumor was that is was "tea sips that tried to bomb the bonfire". Apparently that was just that, a rumor but that was what people were talking.

Also, to add to Fossil's description of the culture around the campus the week of bonfire build ...it was indeed like an armed camp. Checkpoints were located at several different levels throughout the campus, the nearer you got to bonfire, the more checkpoints, manned by students with torches. Each car that entered, starting with the highway six entrance into the Administration building, your car was stopped and checked.

It was a thrilling ride for me, then age 12 or so and my brothers and dad and mom as we would load up to enter the secure areas of campus! Talk about mystery, and intrigue...what a fantastic place to grow up!
NormanAg
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AG

As I recall (memory is the second thing to go at my advanced age), the "beefed up" T-28D (from the T-28A version) with bomb racks and guns we gave to our allies in Viet Nam, Thailand, and Laos also had problems with wings falling off under stress. Even killed a couple of American "advisors" if my memory serves me right.
JR69
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quote:

As I recall (memory is the second thing to go at my advanced age), the "beefed up" T-28D (from the T-28A version) with bomb racks and guns we gave to our allies in Viet Nam, Thailand, and Laos also had problems with wings falling off under stress. Even killed a couple of American "advisors" if my memory serves me right.

True. IIRC those were re-designated AT-28D. The USAF also used them training Vietnamese pilots at Keesler AFB in the late '60s/early 70s. There was at least one incident while I was in Comm School at Keesler '70-'71. Student and IP both killed when it crashed into the Gulf near Gulfport. I never knew the details of what happened, but we saw the wreckage being hauled up Hwy 90 on a flatbed,
BQ78
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Weird, that would have been my dad's senior year and his comment was he didn't remember any thing like that happening and it must be part of Aggie lore. But if you search Pryor and Verduco's names you get hits to several archived middle sized Texas newspapers describing it similar to Canyon's post.
Kenneth_2003
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quote:
quote:
The Corpus Christi Cutter-Times Texas 1954-11-21


Caller-Times.

Beat me to it...
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