Monday, Dec. 12, is the 37th anniversary of the Gander, Newfoundland, jet crash that killed 248 soldiers and eight crew members on a chartered flight bound for Fort Campbell.
In memory of the tragedy, there will be a wreath-laying ceremony at 12:12 p.m. Monday at Hopkinsville’s Gander Memorial Park. The park is on Fort Campbell Boulevard at Pennyrile Parkway. The Christian County Chamber of Commerce Military Affairs Committee is conducting the ceremony.
The soldiers killed in the crash were members of the 2nd Brigade Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). They were returning home to Fort Campbell on a McDonnell Douglas DC-8 jet following a six-month deployment to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.
Families at Fort Campbell were preparing for a Christmas homecoming when news broke of the crash. There had been a refueling stop at Gander where many of the soldiers bought presents in the airport gift shop, but shortly after take-off the aircraft stalled and crashed into a forest about a half mile from the end of the runway. There were no survivors. Aviation officials in Canada later said that ice on the jet’s wings caused the crash.
The names of the soldiers who died at Gander are inscribed in stone markers at the base of a statue — created by the late sculptor Steve Shields, of Hopkinsville. The statue depicts a member of the 2nd Brigade. It is called Peacekeeper, a reference to the brigade’s mission in the Middle East.
Hopkinsville conducts a remembrance service every year on the anniversary of the crash.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
