A moment in history Brigadier General Howard James Withycombe

Editor’s Note: The Heritage Museum provides a glimpse into Howard County/Big Spring history each week, for the Big Spring Herald readers to enjoy. The stories shared each week are only a piece of the history contained in the Heritage Museum. The community is encouraged to visit the Heritage Museum during regular business hours to find out more about the history that helped build Big Spring and Howard County.

Sunday, January 5, 1964, General Howard Withycombe had been quail hunting with local clothing store owner Victor Mellinger and retired jeweler Clyde Waits. The three men were on their way home, headed west on the northside service road in the Sand Springs area. Withycombe's Volkswagon Beetle approached the service road ramp as they were met by another car. Four teens from Coahoma were traveling east on the same service road. The Volkswagen failed to yield and hit the teens' car head on. Withycombe's small car was completely destroyed. The General was killed instantly, his chest was fatally crushed in the compact car. Mellinger was trapped in the car's wreckage. Waits was thrown from the vehicle and suffered severe head trauma. The four teens, all under the age of 15, did not sustain serious injuries. General Withycombe was 47 years old when he died. He had trained some of the finest pilots in the U.S. He was wing commander of the 356th Pilot Training Wing at Webb Air Force Base and a new resident of Big Spring, Texas. He had flown B-52 Bombers with careful precision, but on this fateful afternoon it was not an airplane crash but a car crash that took his life.

Howard Withycombe's life flew by as fast as the T-38 supersonic jets he piloted. Born in San Jose, Calif., in 1916, he graduated from high school in June 1934 and enrolled in San Jose College the fall of the same year. Graduating in 1939 from San Jose State, he went into business as owner-manager of a neighborhood grocery store. Howard was handsome and a firm believer in physical fitness. He said, “Never spare yourself,” as he always stayed active fishing, boating, golfing, hunting, and swimming. In November 1941 he married Gladys Audree McKay. They had two sons, Howard James “Jim” born in 1942 and Keith born in 1944.

Howard decided in 1941 to quit the grocery business and enlisted into the Army Air Corps as he attended flying schools at Hemet, Calif., and Randolph and Brooks fields in San Antonio. Upon graduation in September 1941, he was commissioned as second lieutenant and served the next three years as flying instructor, operations officer, and squadron commander at the bombardier school. He helped open bombardment schools in Midland, Big Spring and Childress, Texas. He served at the Big Spring Army Bombardier School for nine months in 1942. He made rank as major and was stationed at Alexandria, La., preparing for overseas duty.

In 1944, Major Withycombe was sent to Hendricks Field, Fla., for transition training on the B-17. He left for overseas duty in early 1945; reporting for duty in the China-Burma-India theatre. He spent the next several months flying bombs and gasoline over “the hump” from India to support the air offensive launched against Japanese targets in China and Japan. Withycombe flew 32 missions for a total of 300 combat