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LOA, Wayne County — From an Air Force flyover to a 21-gun salute, a community paid tribute Monday to the six lives lost when an Air Force plane broke apart mid-flight while en route to a base in Colorado.
In July of 1943, the plane went down in a remote area of Wayne County. The aircraft was missing for months, until ranchers living near Loa came upon the wreckage.
"It's everybody's history in Wayne County. Everybody knows the story. Their family members were cowboys, they were a part of it. The story has gone from generation to generation," said Debra Young, whose grandfather was one of the ranchers who found the plane.
Three years ago, Kade Brown, also a descendant of one of the ranchers, began a project to preserve the story for future generations. On Monday, a monument built in remembrance of the lost Airmen was unveiled in Loa.
"Our goal was just to inspire the community, and anybody who read the story of our freedom and the sacrifices that have been made for us, and to not forget that," Brown said.
Rick Lindsay etched the history into the monument that now stands along Loa's Main Street. "It is why they put things in stone, so the information will last there for a long time," he said.
Emily Stables was just nine months old when her father, the pilot of the ill-fated aircraft, Maj. Paul Spence, was killed. She traveled from Maine to attend the unveiling ceremony.
"It's kind of a wonderful story of soldiers and pilots and cowboys working together and getting to know one another in the course of a tragic mission," Stables said.
"I come from a very small family, and I feel like I inherited a very large family today," she said.
Even though 74 years have passed, Monday was a time of reflection, helping Wayne County residents to remember when World War II hit close to home.
"This has been wonderful to experience this ... and it's given me a greater sense of pride in my community and those who served," said Burke Torgerson, a resident of Wayne County.
