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JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. - The lives of six crew
members and 35 passengers aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress Aircraft
that crashed shortly after take-off June 14, 1943, were remembered
72 years later June 12, 2015 during at formal ceremony at the Fort Myer
portion of Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall.
The ceremony took
place at the Bakers Creek Air Crash Monument near the Selfridge Gate
entrance to Arlington National Cemetery.
The event
commemorated the 72nd anniversary of the air crash in Queensland,
Australia.
The Soldiers killed in the crash were returning
from a rest and relaxation period from the war, and were headed back
to the Papua, New Guinea, for continued service. For still unknown
reasons, the aircraft plummeted to the ground only a couple minutes
after takeoff, landing in fields near the town of Bakers Creek, some
five miles from the city of Mackay.
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Joan R. Asboth places a flower of remembrance June 12 at Bakers Creek Air Crash Monument near the Selfridge Gate entrance to Arlington National Cemetery on Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall during the Bakers Creek Memorial Ceremony commemorating the 72nd anniversary of the air crash in Queensland, Australia, that took the lives of 40 Army Air Corps members during World War II. (Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall PAO photo by Damien Salas)
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During the ceremony, Australian Air Attach� and Assistant Defense
Attach�, Air Commodore Gary Martin and Australian Embassy Deputy
Head of Mission, Ambassador Caroline Millar performed a
wreath-laying ceremony with JBM-HH Commander Col. Michael Henderson
and Command Sgt. Maj. Randall Woods in remembrance of the crash's
anniversary.
The monument is located just yards from
Arlington National Cemetery, a fitting place as the cemetery serves
as a "dramatic back drop" to the Bakers Creek Memorial, said
Henderson during a ceremonial speech.
"The rows of
tombstones serve to remind us of the many men and women who have
served and given their lives for our great nation," he said. "So
today, we gather to remember these Soldiers ... who lost their lives
in an airplane crash."
The crash of the B-17C is considered
to be the worst accident involving a transport aircraft in the
southwest Pacific during World War II.
Surviving family
members of those killed in the crash attended the JBM-HH-coordinated
ceremony alongside Soldiers from the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The
Old Guard), who were dressed in World War II-era combat uniforms for
the occasion. The family members were given the opportunity to lay a
flower of remembrance in honor of their fallen loved ones.
"This is a sacrifice that all Australians do have recollection of,"
said Martin, who also promised attendees that Australia will always
remember Americans as "true and dear friends."
"But most
importantly, we will always remember the men who perished in that
fateful crash," he said. "I salute the men who passed that day in
Mackay."
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Center, Master Sgt. Leigh Ann Hinton, vocalist from the U.S. Army Band, “Pershing's Own” sings the national anthem June 12 on Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall during the Bakers Creek Memorial Ceremony. The ceremony commemorated the 72nd anniversary of the air crash in Queensland, Australia, that took the lives of 40 Army-Air Corps members during World War II. (Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall PAO photo by Damien Salas)
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Robert S. Cutler, executive director of the U.S. chapter
of the Bakers Creek Memorial Association, told the crowd
that it is "our duty to pay tribute and to remember that
these fallen warriors did not die in vain."
Cutler
explained that the citizens of Mackay built a monument near
the crash site to honor the American's sacrifice at Baker's
Creek. br>
"These fallen members of
the U.S. Army-Air Corps also deserve to be remembered here
in Washington, D.C.," he said.
The monument, a gift
to the Secretary of the Army by the Bakers Creek Memorial
Association, was placed at the joint base in 2009 and bears
the names of the service members who died and the aircraft's
sole survivor, according to a 2010 Pentagram report on the
first commemoration of the disaster on JBM-HH after the
monument was placed. The memorial's base, made of Queensland
pink granite, was gifted from the citizens of Queensland and
the government of Australia, according to Cutler.
The disaster's only survivor, Cpl. Foye Kenneth Roberts,
died in 2004 at age 83.
BBy Damien Salas, Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall PAObr>
Provided through DVIDS/a>
Copyright 2015
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