- Peril On a Kansas Prairie - The Story of Milton Serviceman
Donald L. KIDDER
- By Clark KIDDER
- Eleven brave servicemen that died when their B-24 Liberator
Bomber crashed into a prairie hillside
- in Kansas sixty years ago, were remembered in a memorial
service that took place in a gazebo at the City Park in Osborne,
Kansas, on Oct. 4, 2003. One of the plane's pilots was my dad's
brother and Milton native, Lt. Donald L. KIDDER.
- The evening of Wednesday, Sept. 22, 1943 had began as any
other for the servicemen, who were
- stationed with the 34th Bomb Group, 391st Bomb Squadron at
Blythe Army Air Base in California. Their mission that night
was to ferry B-24 Liberator Bomber No. 42-40354 from the base
to the San Antonio Airport in Topeka, Kansas. As they were approaching,
they received a report that severe electrical storms were taking
place near their destination. They then headed north to avoid
the storms. Earlier that evening, a plane flying a similar route
had diverted to McCook, Nebraska, due to weather conditions.
- The recently declassified file regarding the crash, obtained
from Maxwell Airforce Base in
- Alabama, reveals that around 11:00 p.m. something went terribly
wrong. Byron WESTPHALL, a farmer residing about 20 miles
southwest of Osborne, Kansas, and 9 miles northeast of Waldo,
awoke to a bright light suddenly shining in the south window
of his bedroom. The pilots had turned their landing lights on,
probably due in part to clouds of dust being blown around by
30 mph winds caused by the nearby storms. WESTPHALL observed,
"It was coming from a little east of south, and was just
above the tree tops. As it went past I saw flames coming from
underneath in a stream of fire. I could see that the plane was
rocking from side to side." He was certain the plane would
hit a hill a little to the north. "Suddenly there was a
blaze of light and then I heard an explosion," he recalled.
- The investigation revealed that the plane, flying too low
for unknown reasons, had made a last
- minute attempt to avert colliding with the hill, which had
an elevation of 2,000 feet. Veering sharply to the right, the
plane's wing dug deep into the Kansas prairie, causing it to
cartwheel, and explode.
- WESTPHALL rushed to the scene with another neighbor:
" . . . the fire was burning too strong
- to do anything, except that we put out the fire on a couple
of bodies that we found."
- At least two men were thrown from the plane, and one was
not found until days later. Debri was
- strewn over about four acres. Large sections of the wings
remained intact, and were hauled away by the military, along
with the engines, and several of the larger pieces of the wreckage.
The bodies of the servicemen were taken to Walker Air Forces
Base, and officials there accompanied the bodies as they were
returned to their respective families.
- Possible pilot error, bad weather, and the crew's unfamiliarity
with the area were all cited in the
- report as possible reasons for the tragedy.
- Military officials asked eyewitnesses and other local residents
at the time not to talk about the
- tragedy because of secrecy rules involving all military flights
during World War II. The bodies of the crewmen and four passengers
were returned to their respective homes and the war effort continued.
The 391st Bombing Squadron went on to become one of the storied
units in the Allies' air campaign in Europe.
- Those killed in the crash were Second Lt. Joseph H. BEVES,
Staten Island, New York; Sgt.
- Marlin G. CHAMBERLIN, Williamsport, Pennsylvania;
Second Lt. Cleatus B. CHRISTOPHER, Paris, Tennessee; Sgt.
Howard R. EICHER, Piqua, Ohio; Second Lt. Frank C. FISCHER,
Floral Park, New York; Instructor-Pilot Flight Officer Donald
L. KIDDER, Milton, Wisconsin; Second Lt. Arthur H. LAMKER,
Little Ferry, New Jersey; First Lt. Larue B. LEE, Sacramento,
California; Sergeant Bobby S. SANFORD, Marks, Mississippi;
Flight Officer J. Singleton WALDROP, Atlanta, Georgia;
and Sergeant Chester J. URBANOWICZ, Staten Island, New
York. CHRISTOPHER and KIDDER were the designated
pilots for the flight.
- Von ROTHENBERGER, local historian, and Chamber of
Commerce director at Osborne,
- Kansas recently commented, "Some people who moved there
(near the crash site) about a year after talked about how, when
they got up in the morning, the sun would be hitting that hillside,
and it would just glitter from the metal."
- Donald L. KIDDER was born on Feb. 26, 1919, in the
Town of Fulton, the son of Earl D.
- KIDDER and Emily REESE. Don was an avid sportsman,
and a natural carpenter. His taxidermy won awards at the Rock
County 4-H Fair. He graduated in May 1937 from Milton High School,
on the National Honor Society. Prior to his enlistment in the
Army, Don assisted his father with carpentry work and other duties
associated with the operation of Sunny Beach Fur Farm, located
on Vogel Rd. in Milton Township. The farm was owned by Kenneth
PARKER, President of Parker Pen Company, located in Janesville.
- KIDDER enlisted on March 14, 1941, at the tender age
of twenty-two. He excelled in his duties
- and schooling, and graduated as Airplane Mechanic in October
1941, at Chanute Field in Illinois. Don flew his first solo flight
on May 16, 1942 at Brayton Flying School in Cuero, Texas. He
received his coveted silver wings at the Gulf Coast Army Air
Forces Training Center in Elington Field, Texas on Nov. 10, 1942.
Subsequently, he was made Flight Commander and Unit Oxygen Officer,
and was soon the pilot of a "Flying Fortress," B-17,
and B-24 bombers. His good friend Bob SERNS, now of Lebanon,
Mo. recalls that KIDDER preferred to fly the B-17 over
the B-24.
- KIDDER found a dramatic way of saying hello to his
family and friends while on a training flight.
- One Friday evening in mid-January 1943, he decided to make
a very low pass over his hometown of Milton Junction. He turned
on his bright landing lights, and set his sites on the home of
his good friend, Bob SERNS. He flew the full length of
the city, and then out over the Kenneth PARKER farm, where
his parents lived. Serns still recalls that day.
- "One very special thing in my life happened when Don
flew over one evening down the railroad
- tracks outside our barn. I was feeding calves in buckets.
I heard the terribly loud plane sound and knew it was Don . .
. I dropped the buckets and looked out the barn door. What a
sight! He was flying a B-17 and went over Milton Junction and
Janesville low, and back over Clear Lake road, and others."
- The event even made the local paper, with headlines that
read, "Buildings Vibrate As Plane Flies
- Low." It read in part, "No doubt the friend, on
whose home the pilot turned the searchlight, is glad he did not
'drop in' to make a call."
- The relative peacefulness of the times were shattered when
KIDDER's parents received the awful
- news of the crash via a telegram dated Sept. 23, 1943, sent
at 7:59 p.m. It read:
-
- "REGRET TO INFORM YOU FLIGHT OFFICER DONALD L. KIDDER
FATALLY
- INJURED IN AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT WHICH OCCURRED AT 11:00 PM
SEPT. 22 AT WALDO KANSAS PERIOD REQUEST DISPOSITION OF REMAINS
PERIOD ALL ARRANGEMENT WILL BE MADE AT THIS HEADQUARTERS.
- "COL. CARMACK COMMANDING 34TH BOMB GP 1117P"
-
- KIDDER's parents were presented with a Citation of
Honor in memory of their son, which read:
-
- "He lived to bear his country's arms. He died to
save its honor. He was a soldier - and
- he knew a soldier's duty. His sacrifice will help to keep
aglow the flaming torch that lights our lives - that millions
yet unborn may know the priceless joy of liberty. And we who
pay him homage, and revere his memory, in solemn pride rededicate
ourselves to a complete fulfillment of the task for which he
so gallantly has placed his life upon the altar of man's freedom."
-
- It was signed by H. H. Arnold, General, U. S. army; commanding
general army air forces. These
- words seem even more poignant given the current situation
in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- The Crimson Flash, published by the students at KIDDER's
former high school in Milton, printed
- a special memorial to him, which included the following poem,
by an unknown author:
-
- "Safe in your warm civilian beds,
Count your profits and count your sheep -
Life is passing above your heads.
Just turn over and try to sleep.
Lie in the dark and let them go;
There's one debt you'll forever owe.
Lie in the dark and listen."
-
- A living memorial to KIDDER came in the form of 75
beautiful pine and spruce trees that were
- donated by Kidder's parents, to be planted in Liberty Park
in downtown Milton Junction. Don had assisted his father in the
original planting of the trees some seven years earlier, so it
was doubly fitting that they should stand as a permanent, living
memorial to him.
- KIDDER's friend Bob SERNS honored his memory
by naming one of his sons after his fallen
- friend, and recently had this to say: "Don KIDDER
was a special friend . . . and when he had to leave us, his influence
for good never left us. Don was quiet, level-headed, full of
energy, loved to play and have fun. Ever kind, thoughtful. Very
intelligent, and a good student. I expect to live with my dear
friend Don in eternity. To the best of my ability, I've expressed
his life."
- Talk concerning the accident and its location resurfaced
during 2002, including the fact that no
- service or lasting memorial was ever held in honor of the
eleven servicemen who had given their lives in the line of duty.
Various individuals in the county seat of Osborne decided that
with the 60th anniversary of the crash occurring in September
2003, a long-overdue memorial should be organized to honor the
memory of these forgotten military servicemen.
- At 10 a.m. on Saturday, October 4, 2003, an outdoor public
memorial was held in the gazebo at
- the Osborne City Park in honor of the victims of the crash.
The main speaker was the Reverend James AKERS, Department
Chaplain for the American Legion for the State of Kansas.
- A gray granite monument was placed near the crash site and
a dedication took place in the spring
- of 2004. Surviving members of the servicemen's families were
traced and contacted, and several attended the dedication.
- Though the Kansas prairie slowly reclaimed the charred hillside
at the crash site, and no longer do
- the scattered pieces of the doomed plane glisten in the morning
sun, the memory of the eleven men that died that fateful September
day will live on in the hearts and minds of those that were lucky
enough to have known them.
-
- The story and photos of Donald Leo KIDDER iss generously
shared by his nephew, Clark
O. Kidder. Donald's WWII Military page (which includes several
digital images) can be found here.
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