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*m;-} • l ' "--v ' -v: :• <• • z • • - . '• • •if v X<' *K '~ ^ > 'V.': -nf ;F 1 /*£&': >; " ' ' * '"' ' • HE MCHENRY PLAINDEALER "SERVING THE CHAIN-O-LAKES REGION SINCE 1875" VOLUME 106 NUMBER 68 S . WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 1982 1 SECTION 20 PAGES 25« ion Continues Tragedy Leaves Community In Shock Above, under the watchful eye of a National Guardsman armed with an M-I6 rifle, fire fighters remove the body of a crash victim. The search for the 27 victims in the Friday crash continued until the last body was located late Sunday afternoon. by Angela Burden SHAW MEDIA NEWS SERVICE Just before dark Sunday, the last of the 27 bodies of air crash victims at Wonder Lake was recovered. Twenty- five men and two women were aboard the KC-135, military version of the commercial Boeing 707, which ex­ ploded and crashed over Greenwood Friday night. On Monday, Air Force Reserve and Election memories vary as do the candidates who seek our votes and the issues to be decided. As they are for the winners and losers, for a newspaper they are clean cut - either bright or dismal. Newspaper memories result from a blend of emotions running the gamut from praise to contempt. TTiere is no in- between. For a particular issue the newspaper is wrong when it's positive and ab­ solutely evil if it is negative. Candidates simply do not think in terms of negative, and therefore political writers must do likewise. The newspaper is blamed even for the views of readers, although these are not solicited but submitted voluntarily and except for omitting anything libelous, are printed as the writer wishes his views to be expressed. Nevertheless, when the last newspaper has been put to bed before Air National Guard authorities were performing autopsies in the McHenry county courthouse. The grim task of identifying the victims and issuing death certificates is being conducted by county Coroner A1 Querhammer and the team of military experts. Sheriff's detectives have been fingerprinting the 27 victims of what Querhammer calls "the biggest single election, there are the inevitable phone calls to ask, "Why didn't you say something on the other side?" Then the caller relates all the Public Pulse letters that have given only one opinion. The newspaper also learns that un­ truths have appeared. Where? In any one of the meetings related to stories concerning the issue at stake. And who spoke the untruth? Someone at the meeting, and it had a quote mark, but this is not important. The 'untruth', appeared in the newspaper and as a consequence the newspaper becomes responsible for it. Was it slanderous? No, it only stated a fact which is later disputed. What a newspaper should do about such a quote is never made clear by the complainer. Has the voice behind the statement (Continued on page 18) Below, heavy equipment was brought in to move the larger pieces of the Illinois Air National Guard Jet tanker. STAFF PHOTOS-WAYNE GAYLORD disaster in McHenry county." A temporary ventilating system has been put up by county maintenance engineers in the lower level of the courthouse to prevent odors from the county morgue spreading into the building. Hundreds of volunteers assisted sheriff's police, military authorities and the McHenry County Emergency Services and Disaster Agency (MCESDA) teams in recovery of the victims, their belongings and pieces of the plane over a three-square-mile area. MCESDA Director John Shay said the search and recovery "went off extraordinarily well." He said disaster drills for such emergencies have been conducted on a regular basis and "in this instance the drills have certainly paid off.'1 Sheriffs police were on the scene within minutes of the 9:11 p.m. Friday tragedy, and volunteers from Wonder Lake, Woodstock Rural and other area fire and rescue agencies were on hand quickly. The sheriff's mounted posse, snowmobile and auxiliary police all went into service, aiding in the search, traffic control and communications. Two Salvation Army vehicles from Highland Park were activated and provided food and refreshments for the workers. One of the first people to observe the disaster was Greenwood resident Art Gait, owner and operator of Gait Air­ port, who was parked in a driveway on Greenwood road waiting to pick up his great-granddaughter. "There were a bunch of explosions overhead and the sky looked yellow, pink and orange. I'd never seen anything like that, even in World War II I thought at first that it was a natural phenomena," Gait said. Gait left his vehicle and observed a "hunk" of the plane go overhead past the township garage and into the yard of his daughter, Mrs. Charles Davis. Gait said he looked to the east where the main part of the plane appeared to be on fire "like a plane being shot dowrcfy. in the movies." He hurried to the Davis home, where a large part of the plane had crashed into the yard. Gait said the piece of aircraft was about 25 feet long and 10 by 10 feet. "It was remarkable that no homes were struck or damaged," said Gait, who went into the Davis home and obtained a flashlight to check on the cockpit. He didn't see any victims. Five bodies were recovered from that section of the plane the following morning. Davis said she didn't know part of the plane had crashed in her yard until Gait "pounded on my door to check if we were OK. My granddaughter had just started crying because she was afraid of what I thought was loud thunder when the plane hit the ground," Mrs. Davis said. "Art said 'look out there' and she saw the huge front portion of the plane," (Continued on page 18) Ann Sowers of Wonder Lake, a neigh­ borhood correspondent for the McHenry Plaindealer, injected the only lighter comments to emerge from Friday night's tragic plane crash. Mrs. Sowers, a noon hour aide at Greenwood school, commented Mon­ day afternoon on the extreme ex­ citement of the children who attend this K-5 building. One boy told, in highly emotional tones, how the school would be closed next Friday because it would be "taken over by the Air Force". Actually, said Mrs. Sowers, Friday is planned as conference day, and students will not be in the classroom. She added that, in fact, the Air Force will be "taking over" the school at the dinner hour daily until the mission of the search crew is completed. A little girl at Greenwood found an invitation to a birthday party in the street near the school. She was ab­ solutely certain it had fallen from the plane in the crash and that someone aboard had been invited. One young man enrolled in the school found a watch band which Mrs. Sowers said had very obviously broken. But the youngster was firmly convinced that it was on the plane because of grease on the band. Other stories, according to Mrs. Sullivan, became sensational through the imaginative minds of youth. One told of a ghost that kept running around the school; another that one of the men aboard the plane had landed on the school's roof. The aide said that just as Sgt. Meyers of the Sheriff's police was asking Principal Bill Schuette to have the children turn in any items they might find, Chuck Strauss came running into the building with a piece of metal that resembled a hinge. He found it near a fence on the east side of the school. Notes were sent home with the children, asking families in the area to fly flags for the next week in memory of those who died. Open Miss McHenry Contest the McHenry Chamber of Commerce and American Legion Post No. 491, and its auxiliary unit. The auxiliary opens its doors and makes the Legion the official headquarters for the nine-week charm course, and the contest. All applicants will be personally contacted by Marisa Merkel, chair­ man, and herself a former Miss McHenry, who will confirm the starting date of April 28 for the charm course. As in the past, this year's pageant will again be limited to the first 15 ap­ plicants. Applications are now available at the Chamber of Commerce office and should be submitted with two photographs. The Chamber office is at 1257 N. Green street. Erin Mullen, Miss McHenry 1981, is inviting all girls residing within the McHenry-Johnsburg high school districts to secure applications for the 1982 Miss McHenry contest, preparations are now under way for this year's pageant. All applicants must be between the ages of 17-20, never married and reside in either of the local high school districts. In the past, Miss McHenry has had to make several radio and television appearances, oversee many city func­ tions and act as the official hostess for Fiesta Days. The mo6t important of her tasks, however, is to represent the city in the Miss McHenry County pageant. Sponsoring this year's contest will be Young Students View Crash "We were shaken by the ordeal and it'll be a long time before we forget it," said Mrs. Lynn Sobczak, a Wonder Lake resident whose home was nearly struck by pieces of a disintegrating jet tanker last Friday night. A teacher and wrestling coach at McHenry high school East campus, Martin and Lynn Sobczak were at home when an Illinois Air National Guard jet exploded for an undetermined reason over the Greenwood Wonder Lake area last Friday at 9:11 p.m. When the plane broke up and pieces crashed near the Sobczak home at 9310 Wondermere road, Wonder Lake, a number of items were knocked off the wall and television connections were rattled. Sobczak commented his first reaction was that the area was under nuclear attack. He soon discovered differently when he ran outside and found debris from the mid-air explosion falling to the ground. Mrs. Sobczak originally thought a tornado had touched down ana she grabbed the year-old baby and ran for the basement. Three of the victims of the crash were found on the Sobczak property Satur­ day morning, about half-way to the rear of their narrow five-acre tract. Monday afternoon, Mrs. Sobczak noted that there were about 25 National Guardsmen in the street near her home collecting pieces of the plane from the field. "Sometimes they were such big pieces, it took several men to bring them from the marshy area," Mrs. Sobezak said, ^ Because of the swampy character of the land, vehicles could not be used. Mrs. Sobczak described the field as inaccessible to the emergency crews that responded. "It was less than 10 minutes after the explosion and crash and there were red lights all over the place," she observed. "It was incredible that the plane missed all the houses," she said. Mrs. Sobczak commented that although it is a rural area, there are many homes in the neighborhood. Another area resident, John Gilmore, 4503 Lathrop, Greenwood, said the sky MARTIN SOBCZAK became "lighter and lighter." "The first thing I thought of was an atomic bomb," Gilmore said. "Then I got Chicago right away on the radio. I figured they wouldn't bomb Greenwood before Chicago." X, A Thompson road resident, Lind/ ». Smith, was walking from her car to the\. home when the entire yard was lighted. When it happened a second time, she became frightened and headed for the house. "About 10 seconds later, it became even more brilliant," she said. The house is situated in a valley and all she could see was the light. Her brother, Ed Smith, who lives on Ramble road, Highland Shores, said an orange light filled the living room and bedroom. He said he saw a piece of the plane drop in flames from the clouds. Donna Shepston, a resident of the Hebron area and a Plaindealer em­ ployee, said her dog brought a white (Continued on page 18) Miracle Of A Tragedy Statistics Of A Plane Crash Alcohol-Drug Myths Plane Crash Pictures What-When-Where Facts To Consider Page 13 Page 18 Page 9 •4 Bonus Gift For New Subscribers W *>- , ' <• • • • • * V?, • •