TRAGEDY

Tragedy through accidents hasn’t escaped Arizona over the years, nor has it in the other 49 states. It seems every day that we read of some horrific event taking place throughout the country.

Several years ago, I wrote a lengthy piece about two locomotives colliding near Franconia, almost directly across from where the Pilot and Love truck stops are on Highway 95 and Interstate 40. Five railroad crewmen were killed in that 1901 accident, while 19 other railroad employees and passengers were badly injured.

There was no official memorial at the site, with me making simple wooden crosses for each railroad worker, and having their names written in black marker. They were then placed in soft sand at this approximate location. Hopefully, the crosses still remain, with it now illegal to visit this property.

On July 5, 1973, a large propane tank on a railroad siding exploded in Kingman, killing 12 people and injuring another 80. The shock wave from this explosion was felt well over 5 miles away. Remnants of the tank ended up over a quarter of a mile from the blast. There are at least 3 memorials in Kingman for those who died during this incident, if not more.

Most everyone in the country has heard of the Yarnell Hill Fire taking place on June 30, 2013. This fire took the lives of 19 firefighters. A memorial can be found at the exact location where they died, including one in Yarnell called the Granite Mountain Hotshots Memorial Park.  Another large memorial is in Prescott at the courthouse, along with others throughout the state.

On January 8, 1944, an accident occurred in Kingman that took the lives of 28 cadet soldiers stationed at the Kingman Army Air Field. I’d never heard or read of this tragedy until just recently. While doing some research on the base, I came across several articles written about the incident in various newspapers back then.

At that time, it was the worst transportation accident to ever hit Arizona, until two commercial airliners collided over the Grand Canyon in 1956 killing 128 people. Despite this, it still holds the macabre record of the most killed in an Arizona motor vehicle accident.

1944 newspaper accounts paint a horrific picture of the Kingman train and bus crash, and I’ll attempt to tone things down a bit in my description. Several of the soldier’s names were also corrected by me by using their gravestones for accuracy. I also identified their middle names by using the same.

On Thursday, January 6, 1944, 34 aviation cadets (A/C), along with their instructor and a driver, approached the Santa Fe Railroad crossing at the Kingman Army Air Field entrance. Witnesses say the bus stopped, yet lurched onto the track for whatever reason just as a train was coming. This wasn’t a bus by conventional standards. It was a semi-truck pulling a trailer converted to carry passengers.

The soldiers were all returning from night gunnery training, undoubtedly looking forward to hitting their bunks for some rest before the next grueling day. With the diesel-powered locomotive doing some 45 miles per hour, it easily tore through the bus, strewing bodies everywhere. The Kingman mortuary was overrun with corpses, with many of them sent to Needles, California. Most of these guys were in their early 20s.

Thousands of soldiers volunteered to donate blood, but because of the severe trauma incurred by those unfortunate men on the vehicle, there was not much need. Only 8 survived the crash. Oddly enough, the base commander, Colonel Harvey P. Huglin, absolved the military of any responsibility in the accident six days later. This was despite a railroad crossing agent flagging the military bus to stop.

On January 20, two weeks after the tragedy, the Arizona State Highway Department announced bids were being accepted for a new crossing that wisely placed this dangerous section of road underneath the tracks. Sometimes, it takes a tragedy to get things done, and this was precisely the case here.

I found no memorial at this site for those unfortunate 28 soldiers. To honor the deceased for their service to our country, I’ll bring to light after some 80 years, their names and hometowns one more time.

Some residents living in Lake Havasu City may be related to them. These young and brave warriors who lost their lives while preparing to go off to battle during WWII should never be forgotten, and are most deserving of a permanent plaque or monument!

Second Lieutenant Altemont Roscoe Britton Jr. – Hamilton, Alabama.

A/C Robert Lloyd Johnson – Pottstown, Pennsylvania.

A/C Seymour Kahn – Bronx, New York.

A/C Donald Bernard Keller – Minot, South Dakota.

A/C Kenneth Lawler Kirk – Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

A/C Alfred Mahler Kite – Waynesboro, Virginia.

A/C Robert Joseph Knapp – Davenport, Iowa.

A/C Robert Whittemore Knapp – St. Louis, Missouri

A/C John Henry Kubiak – Olean, New York.

A/C Chester Stephen Kulpa – Chicago, Illinois.

A/C Donald Louis Kusnerek – Little Falls, Minnesota

A/C Norman Frederick Leap – Riverside, California.

A/C Arlo Quinten Leavitt – Bunkerville, Nevada.

A/C Herbert Arthur Lewis – Schenectady, New York.

A/C Norman Levine – Long Island, New York.

A/C John Paul Liddell – Lackawanna, Pennsylvania.

A/C Niles Earl Long – Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Private Frank Edwin Smith – West Point, Iowa.

A/C John H. Stiltz Jr. – Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania.

A/C George Theodore Stine – Aliquippa, Pennsylvania.

A/C William M. Stolle Jr. – St. Louis, Missouri

A/C William Frank Swadener – Indianapolis, Indiana.

A/C Joseph C. Taylor – Atlanta, Georgia.

A/C Alfred Hannis Tees – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

A/C Lewis M. Thompson Jr. – Hollywood, California.

A/C William R. Thornell – Metuchen, New Jersey.

A/C Fred Charles Vogley – Canton, Ohio.

A/C Robert Keith Tingley – Marshall, Illinois.

Type of military bus like the one used at Kingman Army Air Field