At 11:13 PM on June 19, 1953, five Navy C-119 (R4Q-1) aircraft were taxing down the runway about to take off from Whiting Field, Milton, Florida. The planes were part of a giant airlift of 1,600 ROTC students who were undergoing amphibious drills. The planes had landed at Whiting to refuel before getting ready to take off and continue their flight from Corpus Christi, Texas to Norfolk, Virginia. Just moments after takeoff, the second plane in line developed engine trouble and lost altitude, crashing into a clump of trees and bursting into a ball of fire 200 feet from the home of Ray Allen. The plane continued its fiery path for more than 100 yards scattering wreckage and bodies until it finally crashed into two parked cars and Allen's barn. His son Albert Alex Allen (1937-1993), age 15, ran out and saw two men stagger out of the wreckage, one of which begged him to pull off his burning clothes and shoes. Six men in all would survive but sadly TSGT J. L. Farley would perish from his injuries. Scattered in the wreckage and the countryside were the remains of four crewmen and 37 college sophomores and juniors who were undergoing their six weeks of summer training. They had spent three weeks in Corpus Christi and were on their way to their last three weeks in Norfolk.
Twenty-two of the students were from the University of Oklahoma where the campus was heartbroken at their loss. Oklahoma governor Johnston Murray contacted the Whiting Field commandant and offered any assistance that his university could provide to the families of the victims. Nine of the remaining victims were from Rice University, two from the University of Missouri, and one each from Oregon State, University of Oregon, and Georgia Tech.
Harold Stokes, city editor of the News Journal was one of the first on the scene and spoke of the horrible carnage of so many young men. Information was obtained from Raymond Franklin Allen Sr. (1901-2012) and his wife Madeline Michette (1900-1978) as well as others at the scene. Another neighbor, Carlos Crutchfield (1915-2009), stated that he heard the plane's engines "making a terrible racket and the pilot seemed to be gunning them." Another witness said the "engines were burning before the craft even struck the ground and that the first explosion had occurred before the plane crashed." He also stated that two of the injured were taken to Whiting Field by Charles Hughes and Walter Jernigan. Deputy Sheriff Hubert Adams from the Santa Rosa Sheriff's Office also responded but had his hands full directing onlookers away from the scene as did Florida Trooper Roland Hudson.
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