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On my way from L.A., Ca to Omaha yesterday, made arrangements to meet up with my wife and daughter in Flagler, Co. Wife and Kid were on their way to Colo Springs on their vacation, me, I get to work...Flagler would be a good place to stop for both of us, to eat, visit, and stretch the legs.
The reason I wanted to meet in Flag, is because of the resent post here on WIX about there being a T-33 there.
They beat me there by 12 minutes. Parked my rig, and comandeered the wife's car, and took off driving for the park where the offending Lockheed took resedence.... From the back seat I heard.."Dad, wasn't that the cafe we just went past?" ...I just scrunched down and kept going thru the flak....You see, in the Hilton house...if ever in the car/truck, I mention "airport"....I always hear..."Oh No!....Dad!..not another airport!"
Flagler has a VERY nice city park....has the obligitory mechanical rides that kids and grandkids love to ride and wear out the attending adults pushing the darn things....has the kind of grass you want to go barefoot, and great big shade trees...
Somebody had created some chain-saw art on five or six dead cedar trees in the park, and did a rather knock-up job at that...my Kid wanted to get some pics of those, after we shot some frames of the T-33 and the jet drone.
We parked the car, kicked off the shoes, and took our time strolling thru the park...Thats when I found the memorial.....At first I thought it was a memorial for our past fallen troops, from previous conflicts. I always stop and read these memorials as a small tribute to our fallen heros, and protectors of our freedom, and say a word of thanks to them...You always have to read each name, if not aloud, just to let them know that you care.
I was a bit startled to see that this memorial was to an event that occured 15 Sept 1951, right here in Flag....It was a simple affair, a concrete wall, with a cross mounted above it...I'll post pics later, as my Kid stole my camera...On the wall were the names of 20 people that lost their lives on that date, in an airshow accedent.
What went thru my head, was the only airport I knew of at Flag was a little grass field...of all the times I'd been thru here, why hadn't I ever heard of it before? I don't ever recall of seeing anything like this on the internet either....
After the wife and Kid departed for Colo Spgs, I went inside the truckstop and approached an older gent that was doing his lotto scratch tickets...I asked if he knew of the events...He wasn't there when it happened, but had some friends that were killed in the event...Seems a Lt from Denver flew down for the airshow, and crashed into the crowd while doing stunts...He said that there was a memorial service helr Sept 07 there at the park....He told me that there are still a lot of 'harsh' feelings toward the pilot, who had also perished in the crash,...even after all these years...
Did a little research today, and found out that there was an event held at Flag that day...Fall Days....had a parade, a free barbeque at the park, and at 2PM an airshow....
When I think of an airshow, it's all about warbirds, beer tents, t-shirts, gyros...etc....I had to stop and remember what an airshow might have been circa-1950's....pretty grassroots...People were sitting in the grass, on fences, and on car tops....
I am sure that there were other aircraft participating, but the only ones I could find was the aircraft that crased...a T-6, and a glider...The glider had just landed when the T-6 arrived....
The pilot of the T-6, was Lt Norman Jones....He had arrived late, and didn't get the safty briefing that stated no aerobatics and a 300' crowd limit....Lt Jones first made a pass from the south to the north, returned from the west and tried to perform a loop, with too little altitude...the T-6 was seen to snag a wing and impact the ground, into the crowd. Of the 20 killed, 13 were childeren...About 50 were seriously injured.
You can find more details and eyewitness accounts on the net. As you can tell, it has left an impression with me....So please take a moment...remember who you are, what you are....what you might mean to others, and you to them....Please be safe my friends
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