NASA T-38 crash site question

p51 · **Posted:** Mon Jul 20, 2009 9:07 pm

With the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing today, I got to wondering about something related to NASA. Astronaut Clifton Williams was killed when his T-38 went down near Tallahassee in 1967. I have always been curious exactly where the crash site is. As they recovered his body, surely the crash site location must be documented somewhere, but does anyone know where I could find that? I searched a lot online but couldn’t find anything showing the exact location. My folks live there and I’d like to find the site the next time I’m down that way.

p51 · **Posted:** Tue Feb 01, 2011 10:09 pm

I started looking this up again and found Wikipedia said it was at a plantation near Miccosukee which is well Northeast of Tallahassee. There are more than a few plantations around that area. I find it odd that all these other crash sites are so well documented but one for an astronaut isn’t.

cco23i · **Posted:** Tue Feb 01, 2011 10:27 pm

If they did like we did on our T-38 crash sites we picked up EVERYTHING! On one we stayed on the side of a frickin' mountain for almost 2 weeks picking up parts and debris.

Scott

APG85 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 02, 2011 7:07 am

Post your question here (below link). You'll get an answer...

http://collectspace.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi

p51 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 02, 2011 10:18 pm

cco23i wrote:

If they did like we did on our T-38 crash sites we picked up EVERYTHING! On one we stayed on the side of a frickin' mountain for almost 2 weeks picking up parts and debris.

True, but sometimes they practically leave the plane sitting there. When I was a kid, I saw the crash site of an RF-4 out of Shaw AFB (slapped into Holston Mountain near Elizabethton, TN) and there were parts all over the place, long after the USAF cleanup crew had left. I clearly remember seeing pieces of metal and exposed film from the cameras all over the ground. And the site was right next to a road.

Tiger Tim · **Posted:** Wed Feb 02, 2011 11:20 pm

As these guys have found, there always seems to be little bits and pieces left long after the official cleanup.
http://www.thexhunters.com/

Perhaps contacting them would be a good start, this sort of thing seems right up their alley.

-Tim

Robbie Roberts · **Posted:** Thu Feb 03, 2011 1:42 am

Long about 20 or so years ago, an F-4 PhantomII of the NJANG augered in just short of the Willow Run Bombing Range in south NJ. Both Pilot & RIO ejected & survived, but the A/C made a hoed big enough to put a house in. After a couple weeks, I ran down there with a friend in our Willys jeeps- it was on the way to one of our favorite trail systems in Chatsworth. Anyway, the main big chunks of the F-4 were removed, but there were tons of bits of debris: I remember filling about two sandbags with all sorts of things- hunks of wiring, pieces of hydraulic line- even a few 20mm practice rounds, including a few that were bent & twisted into really neat shapes. I later threw away all of it: I'd realized it was pointless to hang onto it, and also someone said the practice ammo might still have a marking charge... Somewhere in a dump are 3 or 4 blue rounds from 20MM...

One thing the Air Force failed to take at that time was a nice portable lighting setup- one of the nice trailers with 4 mercury vapor lamps- I can't remember its designation(learned all about it at Sheppard, then never touched one again... lol...). Just left it sitting there, near the crash site, with no locks or anything. For about half a second I thought about just hooking it to the pintle of the jeep, but, thankfully I didn't even need to think of Leavenworth to realize I just wasn't interested in that problem... I left it sit right where it was. I hope they went back for it sometime! Otherwise one of the pineys has a real nice barbecue light for night time... lol...

Scott

cco23i · **Posted:** Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:14 am

NF-2 Scott?

Scott

Robbie Roberts · **Posted:** Thu Feb 03, 2011 4:42 pm

cco23i wrote:

NF-2 Scott?

Scott

I think so!

cco23i · **Posted:** Thu Feb 03, 2011 5:33 pm

After crewing for 27 years I think i've seen and USED every ground equipment made. :shock:

Scott

Chief · **Joined:** Mon Dec 31, 2007 7:18 pm **Posts:** 187

Robbie,

Here is what an F-4 looks like when it "augers in". It was still smoking when we got to it. (Just west of the Mekong in 1967)
However, the natives had already made off with the wings, AIM 7's and other parts.

p51 · **Posted:** Thu Oct 27, 2011 10:03 pm

I was in Florida last month and checked with friends at the local newspaper (where I worked for 4 years) and turned up nothing. I wonder if maybe NASA wanted to keep this low profile or more likely the newspaper was inept at reporting (which I saw all the time in the 90s).

I later found a little more on that crash. The T-38 in question was 66-8354 with the FAA registration of N922NA. It apparently went down at Woodfield Springs Plantation at Miccosukee: http://en.inforapid.org/index.php5?search=Woodfield%20Springs%20Plantation

I can’t find anything that specifies any point of contact there. I’d assume someone who is a caretaker or something would know where the crash site is. You just can’t find much more than a mention of it online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodfield_Springs_Plantation I’ll be looking into that area the next time I find myself in that area. I swear, I will find the location someday!

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NASA T-38 crash site question

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