When I am not wandering the country in my VW bus named Zorba….or building the shantyboat with Art….I am sometimes doing aircraft archaeology with my brother John. We have been pursuing this activity for the past twenty years and it is usually just a good excuse to wander in the desert as brothers and reconnect in our lives. This past week it became much more meaningful for us.
In May of 2018, John and I had visited the crash site of a PBY-Catalina flying boat during my cross country journey in Zorba as I returned from California. This crash occurred on August 1, 1945, only 13 days before the end of World War II. Seven airmen were on a flight from Georgia to California when they developed engine trouble and while attempting to reach an airfield in Albuquerque, crashed in a lava field 25 miles south of Grants, New Mexico. I had posted about our visit to the crash site on this blog and video of it was also included in the documentary my wife Dianne made titled Bringing Zorba Home. (Available on YouTube.com.)
Over three years after our visit to the site, I received a message on my blog from Florence Wetzel, a niece of one of the airmen, Sgt. Robert Crook. In researching her uncle’s death she had come across my post. I shared with her all the information I had about her uncle’s death and in return she and her sister Dorothy shared some of the rich details of his too short life. Their Uncle Robbie grew up in Brooklyn, played the saxophone professionally, and he loved flying and the crew he flew with. Robbie’s parents, Irving and Florence Crook, opened their house to servicemen in the area and provided both open and nurturing arms as well as home cooking for any who came to their house…which became known in the neighborhood as “Crook’s Inn”. Robbie was eager to do his part in World War II and was the radio operator on the PBY- Catalina.
Knowing that my brother John and I were planning a return to New Mexico to visit two other sites, I made the offer to Florence and Dorothy to take them to the site if they wished. Florence was unable but Dorothy and her husband Dan eagerly accepted and we agreed to meet in Grants, New Mexico. From there we would drive south then lead them across the lava field to the location of the crash where Robbie and his crewmates came to their final resting place. Also accompanying us was my brother’s eleven year old grandson, Sammy.
The hike is a challenging one given the condition of the lava field…nothing but loose rock that shifts under your feet with every step. Dorothy and Dan were more than game and after an hour of slow but steady progress we reached our objective. (Sammy gets a lot of credit for being so patient with the four plodders who accompanied him on this hike.) Dorothy and Dan brought with them a memorial cross for Robbie, a plaque bearing his name, and a plaque that bore the names of all the airmen who perished at the site. In one particularly moving moment we found a portion of the airplane’s radio that Robbie had been operating and Dorothy chose that location for the plaque bearing his name. While my brother and I will continue to share time together in the desert looking for forgotten aircraft crash sites, I am certain there will never be a hike as meaningful to us as this one.
Having visited this site shortly after Memorial Day, it was a powerful reminder of the sacrifices so many have made who came before us. We hope in some small way we honor them by keeping their memory alive. My special thanks to Florence and Dorothy for sharing their uncle’s story with us.
Peace,
Jerry
PEACE OUT RIVER TRIP 
What a wonderful tribute and generous gift to Sgt. Crook’s family! ❤️
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