Sampson and Bladen counties will commemorate 83 years since a military plane crashed near their community and claimed the lives of four airmen during World War II.
Sampson County Sheriff Jimmy Thornton and Bladen County Sheriff Jim McVicker will join a commemoration ceremony on Thursday at a memorial site at 3 p.m. The memorial is located at the intersection of NC Highway 210 and Old Whitehall Road in Bladen County.
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“More than eight decades have passed, but the sacrifice of these four men should not be forgotten,” Thornton said. “We are honored to join these citizens in remembering them and helping preserve this piece of our local history.”
According to records, a Douglas C-53D Skytrooper military transport aircraft departed Fort Bragg's airfield, which was known as Pope Field at the time, on the evening of August 27, 1943, for a routine training flight.
The aircraft did not make it back to base. For unknown reasons, it crashed at 9:30 p.m. in a field located 11 miles southwest of Garland, North Carolina, in an area that was dense and swampy back in 1943.
The crash site is just inside Bladen County, but it was Sampson County citizens who raised funds for a monument to memorialize the four fallen airmen. The four were all between 22 and 23 years old.
Steve Boyette created a large Facebook group known as Clinton-Sampson County local history. He and other members have taken a special interest in the monument site and clean it up each year on the anniversary date.
"This tragic event brought the people of Sampson and Bladen Counties close together; they joined forces and worked together to erect this monument so these four young men would never be forgotten," Boyette said on Facebook.
Organizers said there is an effort in the works to identify and locate surviving family members of the four airmen. They said they eventually hope to invite their families to participate in a future commemorations.