Ceremony to honor servicemen 75 years after their death
Published 10:00 am Monday, August 24, 2020
- This Consolidated B-24D Liberator is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. A B-24 Liberator with 15 servicemen aboard crashed 75 years ago just after the end of World War II near Spout Springs. There were no survivors. Two local men are organizing a memorial event Tuesday, Aug. 25, to honor the servicemen.
LA GRANDE — A pair of La Grande residents is looking to pay tribute to 15 World War II servicemen who died after the war on the 75th anniversary of the crash that took their lives.
The men were onboard a B-24 Liberator returning home to the Northwest on Aug. 25, 1945, just days after Japan’s surrender, when their aircraft crashed in the Blue Mountains near Spout Springs, killing all the men in a fiery explosion. There is no wreckage to mark the location of the crash.
The local men organizing the ceremony, Lyle Schwarz and Armen Woosley, coordinated an event three years ago to honor the crew of a B-17 Flying Fortress crash a little closer to La Grande that also took the lives of all onboard. According to a letter from Schwarz, there have been several other military crashes in the Blues, and there were more than 52,000 aircraft accidents in the U.S. during World War II.
An honor guard from the Oregon National Guard, a playing of “Taps,” a reading of names and an invocation and prayer by Rev. Roger Cochran of La Grande are part of the ceremony.
The ceremony will take place Tuesday, Aug. 25, at 1 p.m. For those interested in attending, travel 17.7 miles out of downtown Elgin on Highway 204, then turn right on Balloon Tree Forest Road. From there, drive 1.9 miles, turn left, and drive half a mile to the crash site, which is near the road. Arrows and flags will help mark key intersections. Anyone attending should allow extra time to travel forest roads.
