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IN LOVING MEMORY

Jump right down through the skies of blue.
Keep your eye on the job to be done!
We're the men of the Hundred and First,
And we'ufight tiu the battle is won!

The year was 1985. The job was
keeping peace in the Sinai
Peninsula, as part of the ten-nation force
set up to oversee the 1979 Camp David
Peace Accord. It's always rough to be
away from your loved ones. On top of
that, an army camp in the middle of the
desert is hardly the ideal holiday resort,
and that's where they'd been for six
months. Still, keeping the peace is easier
than fighting, and this tour of duty had
been uneventful, thank heaven! Besides,
the members of the unit had grown to
know each other, and had made many
new friends. And now they were going
home for Christmas! The men and
women of the 3rd Battalion, 502nd In-
fantry of the 101st Airborne Division,
the elite force of paratroopers known as
"the Screaming Eagles," were heading
back to America.

First they made their way to Cologne,
West Germany, on a routine flight.
Then, they boarded the Arrow Air DC-
8, for the seven-hour trip across the
Atlantic. It passed without incident, and
early in the morning of December 12
they touched down to refuel in Gander,
Newfoundland. The sky was overcast;
there had been freezing rain overnight,
and a fine mist shrouded the airfield.
The passengers took advantage of the
chance to stretch their legs, and dashed
through the cold December air to the
terminal building for a minute or two of
relaxation before heading on. "Great to
be back in America," you could almost
hear them say.

After the routine maintenance of the
plane, the young men and women of the
101st boarded the Arrow once more. It
taxied down the runway, on the final leg
of the long journey to Fort Campbell,
Kentucky. Friends and loved ones were
waiting to greet them. Only another
three and a half hours, and they'd be on
their holidays. The plane left the tarmac,
and rose into the air; it crossed the Trans
Canada Highway at an altitude of about
sixty feet. But then--something went
wrong. Ice on the wings? Nobody knows
for sure. One minute and thirty-six sec-
onds into the flight, the plane dropped
from the sky. It crashed in a wooden
rocky area just south of the town of
Gander, skidded three hundred yards
downhill toward Lake Gander, exploded
and burst into flames. Everyone on
board was killed instantly--two hundred
and forty-eight servicemen and women
and eight crew members. Most of those
who died were between the ages of 18
and 24. It was the biggest air disaster in
Canadian history, and probably the
largest single loss of life for any division
of the American Armed Services, in war
or peace.

How can one cope with this? It seems
like a cruel inversion of nature, when
parents have to bury their children. In
wartime, we expect casualties; we know
that.soldiers will get killed fighting the
enemy in far-off lands. But this was
peacetime, in a friendly neighbouring
country.

The place where they died, Newfound-
land, is a harsh and beautiful land, dom-
inated by the sea. Fishing is a major
industry, and the people of the outports
know about death, especially the death of
the young. The Newfoundland poet Ned
Pratt wrote a short poem called "Ero-
sion. "

It took the sea a thousand years,
A thousand years to trace
The granite features of this cliff
In crag and scarp and base.
It took the sea an hour one night,
An hour of storm to place
The sculpture of these granite seams
Upon a woman'sface.

That tells the effect of one fisherman
being lost at sea. What about the loss of
two hundred and fifty-six sons and
daughters, husbands and fathers, most
of them young people in their prime?
What must it have done to the families?
Such a waste ! So many households devas-
tated, in thirty-six states of the Union!

We know some of the things they did to
alleviate their pain. An American flag
was erected at the crash, and one family
placed at its foot a simple cross of flowers,
with a boy-scout hat attached, in token
of happier days. As well, a series of small
memorial crosses were set up, and one of
them carried a note, "Born from our
love, raised in our love, died with our
love. " A young widow told the Mayor of
Gander, "My loved one is buried in
Kentucky, but he died at Gander, New-
foundland, and my children want to visit
the place where their daddy died. " One
father tried to express his memories:

"THANK YOU SON, for the begin-
ning of a wonderful journey, starting on
September 11, 1961, when you were
born.

THANK YOU SON, for all those
evenings when your mother got up to
feed you, and you let me sleep.

~THANK YOU SON, for wearing those
funny-looking Dodger pajamas. Base-
ball wasn't your thing, but you looked
pretty sharp.

THANK YOU SON, for getting me
involved with Indian Guides. It was the
beginning of our 'PALS FOREVER'
theme. What fun we had!

THANK YOU SON, for being a bud-
dy and true friend to your sister Sheri.
The two of you made a pair of "unfor-
gettables. "

THANK YOU SON, for having the
courage of your conviction, not letting
the weaklings of our society lead you
down the wrong path.

THANK YOU SON, for expanding
your imagination, through your many
interests. Your years were few, but you
learned so much.

THANK YOU SON, for caring
enough about our Country to join the
Service, when you could have played it
safe and stayed in school.

THANK YOU SON, for those many
letters and telephone calls.

THANK YOU SON, for all this and
much more. Twenty-four years is not
very long to be a father, but you gave me
more than many fathers receive in a life-
time. We were, are now, and always shall
be. . . 'PALS FOREVER. ' "

And how about the people of Gander, a
town of 12,000? Gander is an interna-
tional airport, and it has had many
American friends over the years. What
does it do to you when two hundred and
fifty-six people are killed like that, right
after taking off from your airport, and
then when you see their families coming
to visit the crash site? You brood about
it. And the people of Gander decided that
they would raise a monument to perpet-
uate the memory of those who were gone.
The community began to consider its
options, and eventually the Masonic
Lodges agreed to raise the necessary
funds. The project was named The
Gander Masonic Memorial Complex. It
has two parts: one is where the plane
went down, and the other is further west
on the highway.

The area around the crash site is now
called Peace Keeper Memorial Park. A
new road provides access to it. At the end
of the road is a memorial statue called
"The Silent Witness," designed by a
local artist, Lorne Rostotski, and sculp-
tured in bronze by another artist, Steven
Shields (of Hopkinsville, Kentucky). It is
a scene of peace and family love, with
three figures: an American soldier, un-
armed, holding the hands of his little girl,
who smiles trustingly up into his face,
and his small son; both children are wav-
ing olive branches in their free hands.

But as well as the Silent Witness, there
is to be a living memorial. On the south
side of the Trans Canada Highway, just
west of Gander, stands a billboard:

SITE OF "SAMARITAN PLACE"
GANDER MASONIC MEMORIAL
         TO
THE MEMBERS OF THE 101 ST
AIRBORNE DIVISION WHO
DIED IN GANDER
DECEMBER 12TH 1985.



Gander Masonic Memorial

Samaritan Place is to be a retirement
home, with two hundred comfortable
apartments designed to meet the needs
of senior citizens; it will include a fifty-
bed nursing facility, to look after those
who can no longer care for themselves.
In addition, there will be suites for six
people, intended for the comfort of mem-
bers of the bereaved families who wish to
visit the memorial. For these mourners
accommodation will be free of charge.
Provision will thus be made for two hun-
dred and fifty-six residents in all, as a
permanent memorial of the two hundred
and fifty-six who lost their lives. As well,
there will be a non-denominational
Chapel, and a commemorative atrium,
where the names of the victims will be
inscribed. The erection and main-
tenance of this project will demand a
tremendous amount of money; it is esti-
mated that twenty-five million dollars
(Canadian) will be required.

The organizing committee hopes to
have a marble urn on display, with a
sample of soil from four of the battle-sites
where the Screaming Eagles distin-
guished themselves: Normandy (the in-
vasion), Bastogne (the Battle of the
Bulge), Nijmegen (Operation Market
Garden), and Vietnam. If any of our
readers should by any chance have such
a sample that they would be willing to
donate for this purpose, they might com-
municate with the organizers.

And of course money is never amiss.
Possibly your Grand Lodge has already
asked for your help in this connection. If
so, we wouldn't want to interfere with its
efforts. But if by any chance it has not
done so, you might want to send a con-
tribution. Any amount is welcome, but
if you choose to send $5280, your name
will be commemorated on a one-foot
square "Masonic milestone," cut and
polished from local granite, and set in the
floor. On any of these matters, you may
communicate with W. Bro. Gary T. Pin-
sent, President, Gander Masonic
Memorial Complex Inc., P.O. Box 136,
Gander, Newfoundland, C anada A 1 V
lW5.

Lest we forget. .
.
The Philalethes, April, 1991
