Abilene Reporter-News from Abilene, Texas • 40

Rare recovery leaves one less ghost in the Gila 1 vv Nancy Robinson Ups Downs they get it the question readers have been asking since last Ups and Downs story about the attempt to recover a rare AT-9 twin-engine trainer aircraft found crashed in the Gila Wilderness about 10 miles from Her-mosa NiL Hermosa is a former mining settlement that is now a ghost town The AT-9 remains were one of at least 28 known military plane crashes in the Gila area since 1941 Over the years pieces and parts of many of these wrecks have been carried out by hikers if accessible buried or even dynamited so as not to cause confusion in any future search and rescue efforts However some of the wrecks have mysteriously disappeared from supposedly inaccessible areas fueling the claim by some that the treacherous peaks are full iff the spirits iff departed nearest road was one of just 299 built The plane was often described as looking like a fat banana with a green chili slung under each wing for engines Only one is known to still exist and is on display in the Air Force Museum in Ohio The crashed on Dec 30 1942 while its crew was searching for another plane that had earlier been reported missing That plane a Curtiss AT-17 was found 11 months later with the bodies of its two crewmen inside The crew members fared better Both walked away from the crash leaving the AT-9 to eventually fall into the category of unrecovered aircraft deemed by the Air Force in 1961 By the 1980s forest employees jp had heard local cowboys and ranchers talk about a wrecked plane somewhere in an isolated fivers gathering aircraft parts in a phantom attempt to fly out of this wilderness where they met their final destinies Well now there is one less ghost in the Gila thanks to the efforts of retired Air Force chaplain Larry Tagg now with the US Forestry Service and his sons Philip and Martyn Church McCutcheon of the Albuquerque Journal calls it version of a sunken The 1942 Curtiss-Wright airplane that was strewn atop a ridge 25 miles from the A rare photo of the AT-9 trainer like the one that crashed 52 years ago in the Gila Wilderness The has finally been rescued and will be restored for display by Pima Air Museum in Tucson GARDEN CENTER i 1 4142 Ridgemont Drive Abilene TX (915) 695-4040 canyon Enter Philip Tagg a Gila fire management officer Out of curiosity he hiked to the reported crash site and was stunned to discover wreckage in such good condition he was sure it could be -restored for historical display Getting it out of the Black Range of the Gila Wilderness would be quite another story Four years of planning and paperwork including an archaeological assessment of the area to prove removal of the wreckage would not affect any in the national forest led to the belief last October that every requirement had Some of the wrecks have mysteriously disappeared fueling the claim by some that the treacherous peaks are Ml of the spirits of departed flyers gathering aircraft parts in a phantom attempt to fly out of this wilderness where they met their final destinies been met to remove the remains The pieces would be turned over to the Pima Air Museum for display reconstruction Larry Tagg sure if it was Locally grown and locally known! simply red tape or interference from the spirits of the Gila btli only hours before an Air Force' helicopter was to be used to te- trieve the AT-9 last October the' mission was quashed by an official who said the agency should not get involved The spirits hit rock bottom until Service helicopter pilot heard about the project Seven months plus hundreds of hours' flf more planning paperwork ahd prayer later file Forest Service helicopter pilot and the along with a host of others who" had joined in the effort were poised in place to try again The Gila' spirits also made more attempt to hold on to thq' AT-9 Heavy winds across the Black Range made helicopter' operations impossible A final attempt would be made the nex morning were holding our breaths' We got the last load out just the winds began to build It was a marvel to behold a downer that became an When the sun came over the-Gila Wilderness on- May 7 1993 not a single bit of evidence re-: mained of the crash of the AT-9 that had waited there more thsi -50 years to be rescued Officials at Pima Air Museum in Tucson hope to have the aircraft on difr play within a few months did said an exuberant Larry Tagg four years wet really did it! Tell your readers wp appreciate all the encouragement and support they gave The spirits of the Black Rangg however are unavailable for comment a Ste KmiKMgi Shrub Specials! Semi-annual BE Sale! Buy several at these prices your best deal for months to come! 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