San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Witness recalls the hero pilot in 1953 jet crash
I read your reply to William Mayfield’s query (about) a crash near the Taj Mahal at Randolph AFB. I was a witness to the crash as I was standing between the Taj and the crash itself. Until this crash, a trainer jet flew over the Taj each day at 5 p.m. when the flag was lowered for the day. This crash ended these flyovers.
The single-seat jet flew circa 1,000 feet overhead but flamed out. The pilot chose to drive it into the ground and die in order to ensure the crash would not harm the Wherry housing (for military families) adjacent to the crash site. He could have ejected but chose not to do so.
He was proclaimed a hero, and the Scout hut and family picnic area were named after him. I am not sure now but I think his last name was Eberle. The crash site was on Randolph itself halfway between the Taj and the main gate to the base next to the road connecting them.
I hope this helps and that you will forward this note to Mayfield. I, too, lived on base from 1950 to 1955 as a teen.
— David Fischer
Apologies for a swing and a miss — last Sunday’s column described a B-29 crash, where the pilot made a loop around the base and veered off to crash in a field about 2 miles from Randolph AFB (now Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph).
Mayfield recalled that the crash happened “near the Taj Mahal (administration building) in the early 1950s” and that the doomed plane came “right over our apartment prior to crashing. As best we recall, there were two fatalities.”
At first, the 1951 accident was thought to have claimed only two lives; the third lost airman was thrown farther from the wreckage. That was the wreck that seemed similar to the one Mayfield
was asking about.
But the 1953 crash described by you is much closer to Mayfield’s memories, as confirmed by a Randolph historian.
“Capt. Eberle died in the first jet aircraft fatality at Randolph AFB on Jan. 8, 1953, when a wing fell off his F-80 ‘Shooting Star,’ ” said Gary W. Boyd, director of the Air Education and Training Command History History and Museums Program.
Joseph Norbert Eberle of Louisville, Ky., 27, was an experienced pilot, who had served since 1943 and had flown during World War II and served on Iwo Jima from 1947 to 1949. Later a reserve officer, Eberle had only recently agreed to remain on active duty indefinitely.
According to the San Antonio
Light, on the day of the crash — Feb. 9, 1953 — Eberle was flying gunnery exercises in a singleseater fighter plane with B-29 bombers from Randolph.
When a wing buckled and dropped off at 800 feet, reported the United Press wire service, his plane was “thrown into an uncontrollable flat spin and crashed just inside the main gate,” about 200 yards from the administration building (the Taj Mahal).
Civilians “working on a project just outside the main gate were
almost hit by fragments of the plane.”
The crash site, the Light reported, was “only a few yards from quarters occupied by families of (Air Force) personnel.”
A crash rescue team was dispatched, but base officials reported that Eberle had died instantly. What was left of the plane burst into flames, and base firefighters put out the fire within five minutes.
Wreckage was scattered as far away as Universal City, and “Patrolmen and sheriff ’s deputies went to the scene to prevent their removal as souvenirs.”
Eberle’s military funeral was held Jan. 14, 1953, in Louisville, and he was buried in that city’s Calvary Cemetery.
He was survived by his wife,
the former Marie Fitzgerald, who had been commissioned as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and served at Fort Sam Houston’s Brooke Army Hospital before they were married in September 1950. The couple had a son, William Joseph Eberle, born in 1951.
“Eberle Park is still in use,” Boyd confirmed.
The park was dedicated to the fallen pilot in April 1954 and is still used for family outdoor activities. An old hut on the recreation grounds probably was the Scout hut you remember.
William Garner, who with his wife founded and ran Mr. and Mrs. G’s Home Cooking, a revered soul food restaurant on San Antonio’s East Side, has died at age 83.
Garner, known to regulars as “Mr. G,” died “peacefully in his home” Monday, the family said on its Facebook page.
Garner and his late wife, Addie, opened the restaurant on W.W. White Road in July 1990.
Mr. and Mrs. G’s was known for its Southern-style favorites such as smothered steaks, okra gumbo and banana pudding.
Condolences and memories of Mr. G packed the comments section of the family’s Facebook page.
“Believe that your daddy made a big impact on so many lives,” wrote Mitzi Santleben. “I will hold him dear in my heart, for always. He and the Mrs. always made us feel at home, and loved by their food and compassion.”
Others remembered conversations they had with Garner in the years after his wife’s death in 2017. A customer said Mr. G often told him how much he missed Addie.
“Him and your mom were true gems of the community,” wrote another customer, Theresa Pomerleau.
In a 2017 interview with the San Antonio ExpressNews, Garner said the idea
to establish a soul food restaurant was his wife’s.
She made the sweets while he cooked up the savory and smothered dishes
that earned Mr. and Mrs. G’s a multitude of Readers’ Choice awards from the Express-News.
Their customer
base grew by word of mouth until the restaurant became an East Side staple.
“We were a team,” Garner said.
Lewis Funeral Home is handling arrangements. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, the services will be for immediate family members only.
A “celebration of life” is scheduled to be livestreamed at noon Tuesday on the funeral home’s website, lewisfuneralhome.com, and friends will be able to attend a viewing, scheduled for 5-7 p.m. at the funeral home, 811 S. W.W. White Road.
The family asked that donations be made to the Diabled American Veterans in Garner’s name in lieu of flowers or gifts.
Mr. and Mrs. G’s Home Cooking, still run by family, is at 2222 S. W.W. White Road.
The restaurant is participating in Black Restaurant Week San Antonio, which ends Sunday.
Another billionaire is offering free rides into space.
Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa said he’s looking for eight crew members to accompany him on a trip around the moon. He bought the whole trip on the SpaceX vehicle, which will carry 10 to 12 people total, and he’s looking for eight strangers who want to use space to push their creativity and improve the world.
“I want people from all kinds of backgrounds to join,” Maezawa said in a video with English subtitles. “It doesn’t matter what you are doing. You want to help people and contribute to society. You want to take your creative activity to the next level. If any of this sounds familiar, please join me.”
As of Wednesday morning, more than 100,000 people had applied to join the mission. The top three countries with citizens submitting applications were India, Japan and the U.S.
Maezawa first announced his mission in 2018. It’s planned to launch in 2023 on the SpaceX Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket, which was previously called BFR, for Big “Falcon”
Rocket.
This is the vehicle that is being tested (and keeps crash landing) in South Texas. Unlike the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft that has launched six astronauts into space, the Starship is not yet ready to fly people.
Still, SpaceX founder Elon Musk is optimistic about the 2023 timeline.
“I’m highly confident that we will have reached orbit many times with Starship before 2023,” he said in the video, “and that it will be safe enough for human transport by 2023. It’s looking
very promising.”
Maezawa founded Japan’s largest online fashion mall, Zozotown, in 1998. He sold it to SoftBank Group Corp. in 2019, using some of the proceeds to pay down debt, Reuters reported. Maezawa is known for his love of high-end art and sports cars.
Prior to selling much of his stake in the company and resigning as its president, Maezawa had pledged 88 percent of his stock holdings as collateral to banks, according to Forbes. And his company had some missteps, including the Zozosuit, a polka-dotted bodysuit that was supposed to help online shoppers find clothes that fit their body. It launched in 2017 but because of lackluster demand was discontinued in late 2018. The next January, Zozotown’s parent company, Zozo, announced its first fall in profits since the company went public in 2007, according to Forbes.
As of Wednesday, Forbes reported Maezawa’s net worth at $2 billion.
This makes him the second billionaire this year to invite the public into space. Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, a payment processing and technology solutions company, held a competition in February to select passengers who will join him on a SpaceX Crew Dragon that could orbit the Earth this year.
Those interested in joining Maezawa on the Starship should visit dearmoon.earth. Pre-registration is required by March 14.