Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names of omitted 30 now grace memorial
Almost 44 years ago, 10 airmen assigned to the Little Rock Air Force Base were killed in the deadliest plane crash in the base’s 60-year history.
That crash has always been a noted part of the base’s past, but the names of the airmen who died in it were not publicly memorialized — until now.
Those 10 names and the names of 20 other unsung airmen were finally added last month to a memorial honoring service members killed in accidents at the base.
The High Flight Memorial in the base’s Heritage Park was dedicated in October 1980 to honor Little Rock airmen who died in aircraft or missile “mishaps,” said Jennifer Blankinship, historian of the Jacksonville base’s host unit, the 19th Airlift Wing.
“It was really important to make sure everybody was honored properly.”
JENNIFER BLANKINSHIP of Little Rock Air Force Base
In 2013, it was discovered that names of some airmen had been left off. At the end of April this year, contractors remedied that error by etching on the missing names.
The 30 airmen were killed in 13 different accidents dating back 58 years. The instances included crashes of B-47 bombers, B-58 bombers, C-130 cargo planes and RF-101 fighter planes, as well as three accidents involving missiles.
The monument now bears the names of 95 airmen killed in 27 accidents.
“It was really important to make sure everybody was honored properly,” Blankinship said. “Luckily, we were able to fix it.”
Blankinship is working to locate and contact the airmen’s family members and invite them to see the memorial. She said it has been difficult, especially in the case of 22-year-old Capt. Robert Boucher who died in a RB47 Strato jet explosion back in 1957.
But a few families contacted by Blankinship are already arranging to visit, she said.
For the family of Capt. David Moule, a pilot who died in that deadliest crash on Nov. 12, 1971, having his name on the memorial will give family members “a place to go back” to, said Moule’s daughter, Jennifer Cesena.
Though Moule died during the Vietnam War era, he and the others killed in that 1971 crash were not eligible to be listed on the national memorial because they died during training and not in support of combat missions. As far as the family knows, Little Rock Air Force Base is the only place his name is memorialized.
Moule’s C- 130 stalled during takeoff, rolled to the side and slammed into the base’s runway, killing Moule and nine others aboard. According to an article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette archives from that time, the C-130 exploded on impact and the 40,000 pounds of jet fuel on board burned, leaving only the tail section of the plane intact.
After the crash, Moule’s widow, Mary Moule, moved the couple’s children — 7- month- old Jennifer and 2-year- old Jeffrey — back home to California.
“I stepped away from military life at that point,” said Mary Moule, now 68.
She and her two children, along with five grandchildren,
are planning to visit the base sometime in the next year. It will be the first time they will have returned since the crash.
“We were babies, and it was a difficult time when we left there,” said Cesena, 44. “For the three of us and our families to see it in person, it will be a little bit of a closure for all of us.”
Blankinship first learned that the airmen’s names were missing from the memorial in 2013 from the son of Lt. Col. Charles Tubbs. Tubbs was a pilot who died when his B-58 Hustler crashed at the 1965 Paris Air Show in France.
Tubbs, part of the 65th Bomb Squadron assigned to Little Rock Air Force Base, was invited to Paris with his crew to do a demonstration flight. A Democrat-Gazette archives article from the time states that his B-58, a supersonic jet bomber, landed short of the runway and “crashed with a thunderous roar which shattered wings and fuselage and burst into flames.”
In May of 2013, Mike Tubbs, 66, stepped onto Little Rock Air Force Base for the first time since his father’s death. He was attending a ceremony to introduce a B-58 to the aircraft display at Heritage Park. That’s when he noticed the High Flight Memorial and the fact that his father’s name wasn’t on it.
“I scrolled down and noticed my dad’s name was not there. I thought it was unusual,” Tubbs said. “When I was aware that his name was not there, I felt like I needed to correct that for family pride. But also in recognition of the other lives that might have otherwise been overlooked.”
Tubbs, who lives in Midland, Texas, said he did some research and found the names of a few other omitted airmen. He relayed that information to Blankinship, who at that time had been a base historian for less than a year.
“I had no idea,” Blankinship said. “I was really surprised, and I thought, ‘Oh no, this is not good.’”
She scoured old newspaper articles and came up with the list of 30 airmen whose names weren’t on the memorial. She confirmed their names, ranks and death dates with the casualty services office of the U.S. Air Force Personnel Center.
McGee Monument Co. in Conway was then contracted to add the names to the memorial.
Tubbs said he is planning a trip to the memorial this summer, to “just say I stood there, and there’s his name.” June 15 will be the 50th anniversary of his father’s death.
“It’s interesting it’s been that long, and it falls into place,” Tubbs said. “It’s a great tribute to him and the others. It’s an honor.”