Two C-119's Hit In Mid-Air;
12-14 12-14 Dead

WILMINGTON, Ohio CP) Two C119 planes of a troop carrier group collided in the air near here Saturday night and the Ohio Highway Patrol said there appeared to be 12 to 14 dead.
   One of the planes caught fire after the collision and crashed into a plowed field.
   The patrol said there were bodies from that plane scattered in the field.
   First reports were that the planes were carrying only five men each but some persons at the Clinton County Air Force Base said there may have been paratroopers aboard.
   Three men were reported to have been injured, one critically, and taken to the Clinton County Hospital.
   A number of men also were reported to have parachuted from the planes but none had been reported found almost three hours after the collision.
   The planes were C119s of the 907th Troop Carrier Group at Clinton County AFB. a civilian information officer, Edward L. Shirr, said.
   The planes crashed on U.S. 22 near Melvin, about 10 miles east of Wilmington in southern Ohio.

[The Morning Call, 19 Apr 1964, Sun, Other Editions, Page 3]

High Level Probe Opens

Whether Air Force Planes Collided Still A Question

WILMINGTON (AP) --- Still unknown is the cause of the crash in which 17 men were killed Saturday night as two C-119 Flying Boxcars plunged to their destruction destruction in muddy farm fields north of the base.
  Two survived.
   All but one of the victims were Army or Air Force reservists from Ohio and Kentucky.
   Officers of the 907th Troop Carrier Group, which operated the big planes, said they did not know what caused the accident. Eye-witnesses said the planes apparently collided in air just before starting an approach to the field.
   Brig. Gen. Donald J. Campbell, commander of the 302nd troop carrier command, issued his statement today: "The mission had been aborted due to deteriorating weather conditions and it was felt that an inadvertent entry into a scud of clouds while the aircraft were in their initial approach pattern was a contributing factor to the accident."
   Major Edward Hillman Jr. base information officer, said the planes were engaged in a normal night paratroop dropping exercise. Eight of the victims were green-bereted members of the Second Special Forces Group from Ft. Hayes at Columbus.
  The Paratroop dropping area is near the end of the runways and the ground operations officer had not yet given his order to either land or proceed with the drop, Maj. Hillman said.

   The area had been drenched with rain earlier Saturday, but the weather was relatively clear at the time of the accident.  The yellow glow from the crash was visible at the base, six miles away, and Louis Fuller said he saw the flash in the sky apparently --- when the planes collided --- while standing in the parking lot of his drive-in restaurant two miles south of the base.
   Much of the wreckage landed near the farm occupied by John Hook and his wife, Anna-belle. Hook's brother-in-law, Paul Bennett of Springfield, O., was visiting with his wife and all four were playing cards when suddenly an explosion lit up the sky outside.
HOOK SAID he realized it was a plane "because we couldn't hear the engines anymore." He raced to the phone to summon help while Bennett ran outside. Planes often fly over the farm when reservists train during the weekend.
   Part of the blazing wreckage landed about 600 yards away. The fuselage of one of the planes fell about 200 yards from the house, but did not catch fire.
   "We were really lucky that nothing hit the house," Mrs. Hook said. "Not even the windows were broken, and my 3-year-old girl slept right through it all."
   Also lucky was Sgt. 1c William Kremer Jr., who was found wandering around Hook's unplanted corn field, dazed. An Air Force officer who talked to him then said the sergeant could only recall "a big bang, and there I was, out of the plane."
   There were unconfirmed theories that both Kremer and Staff Sgt.

William L. Zugelder, 37, Springfield, the other survivor, were blown out when the planes collided. Kremer was released after treatment while Zugelder was reported in fair condition.
   The dead Included the commander of the squadron involved, Lt. Col. Richard M. Griswold of Cincinnati, and Lt. Col. Ray J. Glaze of Pickerington, commander of the Special Forces unit. Also killed was Maj. Francis J. Brock, an officer from the Ninth Air Force headquarters who was making a routine inspection flight.

Death List In Double Plane Crash

WILMINGTON, O. (AP) The Air Force has identified the 17 men killed Saturday night in the crash of two planes near here as: SSgt. Richard F. Davis, 31. of New Vienna, O; SSgt. Clyde Grimes, Dayton; Lt Col. Richard M. Griswold. a pilot, Cincinnati; Mai. Woodson B. Gudgell, 34. Owingsville. Ky; Maj Stanley It. Heisman, 41. Loveland, O; Maj. James A. Hopkins. a pilot; Dayton; Capt. Robert L Timmons, Columbus; Maj Francis J. Brock, Shaw AFB, South Carolina; Capt. Ernest B Milligan. 32, Wilmington; PFC James W. Kramer, Columbus; Lt. Col. Ray J. Glaze, Pickerington. O; Lt. Donald B. Becker. Columbus; SSgt Joseph T. Kelley, Columbus; Lt. Col. Samuel W. Sardis. Cincinnati; Capt. Calvin F. Kemp, Columbus; Cpl. Peter A. Weart, Columbus; SSgt. William H. Cornell, Columbus.

[The Akron Beacon Journal, 20 Apr 1964, Monday Main Edition, Page 2]