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Fort Wainwright to mark 30 years after deadly C-130 crash
by Terrarium Thu 31 Jan 2019, 9:03 am
Fort Wainwright to mark 30 years after deadly C-130 crash
Wednesday, January 30th 2019
By: Chris Klint
Wednesday, January 30th 2019
By: Chris Klint
A somber ceremony at Fort Wainwright next week will mark the 30th anniversary of a Canadian military plane crash at Fort Wainwright, which left nine of that country’s service members dead.
U.S. Army Alaska officials said both U.S. and Canadian representatives will travel to Fort Wainwright on Tuesday, where a 9:45 a.m. gathering will honor the soldiers killed in the C-130 cargo plane’s Jan. 29, 1989 crash.
“It’s just going to be a small memorial ceremony,” said U.S. Army Alaska spokesman John Pennell.
The wreck took place at the height of the Cold War, during Exercise Brim Frost 89 — a joint U.S.-Canadian operation that was among the precursors of Alaska’s current-day Northern Edge exercises. At the time it was meant to ready the two countries’ Arctic warriors for potential combat against the Soviet Union, which began to collapse the following year and ceased to exist in 1991.
“The exercise was designed to test the ability of U.S. and Canadian forces to conduct winter operations,” U.S. Army Alaska officials wrote in a statement. “The $15 million exercise involved 26,000 troops, 120 aircraft and 8,000 vehicles.”
A UPI story at the time said that in addition to the nine Canadians killed in the crash, more than 250 injuries including 88 frostbite cases were reported during Brim Frost 89. A mock “force-on-force” fight involving all 26,000 troops was reduced by 90 percent amid wind chills that sometimes reached 120 degrees below zero, and poor weather that kept vehicles from operating and grounded many of the aircraft flights — including those by C-130s — planned during the two-week exercise.
The plane that crashed was the second C-130 of three flights from Edmonton, Alberta set to land at Fort Wainwright’s Ladd Field that evening. After the first plane landed safely, the C-130 approached the field carrying a crew of eight, as well as 10 special service paratroopers set to join a force-on-force exercise involving about 435 Canadian paratroopers.
“At the time of the crash, a thick, icy fog blanketed the runway and the temperature registered around 60 degrees below zero,” U.S. Army officials wrote.
According to The New York Times, the C-130 hit the end of the runway, broke in half and skidded about a quarter of a mile down the tarmac. Army officials said the third plane diverted to Fairbanks International Airport after the crash, which left three of its initial 10 survivors seriously injured.
A since-deleted story on the crash from Canada's Pembroke Observer & News, quoted on a Facebook page linked to Fort Wainwright's 98th Support Maintenance Company, listed those immediately killed as:
Warrant Officer Joseph Arsenault, 33
Master Cpl. John MacKinnon, 35
Cpl. Robert Allen, 24
Cpl. Paul McGinnis, 24
Master Bombardier Donald Smith, 28
Cpl. Lee Wright, 26
Lt. Richard Moore, 37
Cpl. Joseph Paul-Emile Castouguay, 36
Days later, a ninth crash victim, 40-year-old Master Cpl. Louis Papineau-Couture, died in a Fairbanks hospital.
Master Cpl. John MacKinnon, 35
Cpl. Robert Allen, 24
Cpl. Paul McGinnis, 24
Master Bombardier Donald Smith, 28
Cpl. Lee Wright, 26
Lt. Richard Moore, 37
Cpl. Joseph Paul-Emile Castouguay, 36
Days later, a ninth crash victim, 40-year-old Master Cpl. Louis Papineau-Couture, died in a Fairbanks hospital.
The first C-130 landed with no problems at the airfield. Then at precisely 6:47 p. m., air traffic controllers lost complete contact with the second aircraft. The temperature hovered around -68F and there was a thick ice fog covering the airfield that evening.
Then suddenly, the unimaginable happened, the second C-130 struck the bank of the Chena River , about 600 feet short of the runway with such force that the plane broke in half.
Capt. Mike Jorgensen of the Canadian Forces recalled climbing out of the wreckage with a broken ankle and a cut ear. "Everything was so normal," Jorgensen would recount later in an interview with the Pembroke Daily Observer. "Then, we hit hard and spun around. There were screams. Then I guess I blacked out. When I came to, I remembered I was just scrambled. There was some screaming and moaning. My foot was crushed. I remember falling out the door, or maybe it was part of the fuselage that had opened up".
The third C-130 Hercules was immediately diverted to the Fairbanks International Airport after the control tower was informed of the crash. Roland Owings, who was stationed with the 98TH Maintenance Company at the time, said “We were in the field that year I had just driven by the end of the runway 5 minutes before the crash going from the company area to the shops”.
Rescuers were immediately put on full alert and without hesitation rushed to the crash site. When they arrived at the scene, survivors were struggling to pull themselves from the wreckage and the frozen ground. Sadly, there were no signs of life in the mangled tail section of the aircraft.
1st Lieutenant, Robert Feldman was also stationed with the 98th Maintenance Company at the time ” SGT Hoffman, myself and someone else from the Military Police Station went to the airfield that night to set up warming tents for the emergency response personnel” Feldman later recalled “It was not a well thought out directive but we did it anyway. I remember looking at SGT Hoffman and the Military Policeman and asking how the hell they expect us to set up tent on the airfield. Hoffman had the epiphany to set the tent stakes with water and that's what we did. We loaded up the gear and a couple of jerry cans of water and froze those tents right to the tarmac.” SPC Wade Harkema another soldier from the 98th Maintenance Company was working that night, when he was asked to report to the unit CQ desk “ I was given a flashlight and sat in the back of a deuce and a half for a while but didn’t go to the airfield. I heard that it was so cold the casualties’ blood froze on the tarmac almost instantly”.
On that unfateful cold night on January 29, 1989 of the eight crewmen and 10 paratroopers aboard the C-130, there were only nine survivors. Five were critically injured including Captain Mike Jorgensen, Trooper Sylvain Chenard and Trooper Stephan Poulin. The losses to the Canadian Airborne Regiment were Warrant Officer Joseph Arsenault, 33, Master Cpl. John MacKinnon, 35, Cpl. Robert Allen, 24, and Cpl. Paul McGinnis, 24. Master Bombardier Donald Smith, 28 and Cpl. Lee Wright, 26, from the 2nd Regiment Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, were also killed. Three other servicemen from the Canadian Forces Base Edmonton also known as Edmonton Garrison perished in the crash: Navy Lieut. Richard Moore, 37, Cpl. Joseph Paul-Emile Castouguay, 36, and Master Cpl. Louis Papineau-Couture, 40, who died in a Fairbanks hospital a few days later. Today January 29 2013 we honor and pay our respects to our fallen comrades.
By Eddie A Roman
CREDITS:
Chase, Sean. (2009, January 31). Opinion: The crash at Fort Wainwright. Pembrokes Daily Observer
Special Thanks to Robert Feldman, Wade Harkema and Roland Owings
Photo Courtesy of John Gartner
“Rescuers rushed to the crash site without hesitation and found survivors struggling to pull themselves from the wreckage on the frozen ground,” Army officials wrote. “Local emergency responders joined Fort Wainwright's responders in getting the injured to medical care.”
Fairbanks’ response to the wreck extended well beyond the initial calls, according to the Army.
“Local residents from Fairbanks and Fort Wainwright donated blood as soon as the request went out,” Army officials wrote. “They sent flowers and compassionate notes of condolence. They offered assistance if needed. French students from the University of Alaska Fairbanks offered translation services.”
According to the Army, the crash was ultimately attributed to pilot error. KTVA queries to Canada’s Department of National Defence regarding its records on the crash were still pending Wednesday.
Tuesday’s event will also serve to open the annual Extreme Cold Weather Arctic Symposium, an event meant to “highlight the continuing importance of training in extreme cold weather and high altitude environments.”
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Re: Fort Wainwright to mark 30 years after deadly C-130 crash
by Zodiac Wed 06 Feb 2019, 8:13 am
Remembering Brim Frost ’89, C-130 crash: Fort Wainwright memorializes deaths of Canadian airmen, soldiers
By Sam Friedman sfriedman@newsminer.com > Feb 6, 2019
By Sam Friedman sfriedman@newsminer.com > Feb 6, 2019
FORT WAINWRIGHT — At about 9 p.m. on a Sunday just more than 30 years ago, a Canadian C-130 cargo plane crashed in front of the runway at Fort Wainwright, fatally injuring nine occupants and initiating a harrowing rescue operation in frigid conditions.
Service members from the United States and Canada came together Tuesday morning to mark the anniversary of the crash with stories, a 21-gun salute and the playing of American and Canadian memorial service bugle calls. The remembrance was also the starting event of the 2019 Extreme Cold Arctic Symposium, a combined U.S. and Canadian Army conference and trade show focused on operating military units in the extreme cold.
The Brim Frost ’89 war games were designed to test the cold weather skills of the U.S. armed forces and Canadian allies. With 26,000 service members, it was among the largest winter military exercises ever conducted in Alaska. It ended up being a particularly extreme cold weather test: A cold snap arrived during the exercise with temperatures averaging 50 below zero around much of mainland Alaska.
Over the course of the exercise, 280 cold weather injuries were reported, including 88 cases of frostbite, U.S. Army Alaska Deputy Chief of Staff Dusty Finley told an audience Tuesday at the Alert Holding Area warehouse on Fort Wainwright. Finley was an infantry officer stationed near Eielson Air Force Base during Brim Frost ’89. His unit dispatched a convoy of armored personnel carriers to pick up soldiers who were due on another plane and which happened to be the first responders after seeing the C-130 crash.
Finley described the confusing aftermath of the crash amid dense ice fog.
“The airfield operating control tower was unaware that the plane had actually crashed, nor was it aware of its location on the airfield until one of the Canadian soldiers walked over to a nearby barracks complex and calls were made to airfield ops,” he said.
The initiative of the soldiers and the medical staff who responded to the crash greatly prevented additional suffering, Finley said.
Mike Jorgensen was one of the nine Canadian service members who survived the crash. He returned to Fort Wainwright for Tuesday’s ceremony. In 1989, Jorgensen held the rank of captain. He had recently completed U.S. Army Ranger school and was excited to take part in the cold weather war games as a paratrooper when he boarded a C-130 in Edmonton, Alberta, on his way to Brim Frost. In all, the plane carried eight crew members and 10 paratroopers.
As the plane prepared to land at Ladd Field, Jorgensen said he and the other paratroopers in the cargo area suited up to practice an exercise that involved running out the back ramp of the plane to practice defending an area when they landed. Instead of landing, the plane hit a snowbank.
In the chaos of the crash, Jorgensen briefly lost consciousness. He remembers everything that happened when he woke up.
“I have all the memories seared in my head in great detail. The thing that kicked in of course was my training. I knew what I had to do. I had to either exit the aircraft at either the 10 o’clock or the 2 o’clock position,” he said. “And when I lay out there and those first responders almost landed on me as they jumped over the banks that had been plowed along the runway, I had also tucked my fingers underneath my arm pits to keep them from getting frostbite.”
Jorgensen stayed in the Army after spending a week at the hospital at Fort Wainwright and returning to Canada. He went on to reach the rank of brigadier general in the Canadian army and became director of army training. He’s now retired and lives in Ontario.
Jorgensen said Tuesday that he thinks about the crash that killed his soldiers and airmen every day. He’s reminded of it when he gets out of bed and puts weight on his right ankle, which was fractured in the crash. This week was Jorgensen’s first return to Fairbanks since 1989. During his visit, Jorgensen took a tour of the crash scene and met with several people here who helped in responding to the crash.
He told several stories at the ceremony about his medical care at Fort Wainwright. People here tried to make him feel welcome by bringing him souvenirs, knowing he wouldn’t have time to shop himself. They also found him a French-speaking soldier to keep him company, a well-meaning but completely unnecessary gesture because his first language is English. He found the way the medical staff said goodbye to be a particularly meaningful gesture: As he and the other wounded soldiers and airmen were discharged from the hospital, the entire medical staff lined the halls to see them out, he said.
“For me, the medical team at the Bassett Army Community Hospital here at Fort Wainwright was an amazing one,” he said.
“Faced with a mass causality scenario, they performed in exemplary fashion to do their best to provide live-saving support to those strangers from Canada who had just come out of the darkness.”
Contact Outdoors Editor Sam Friedman at 459-7545. Follow him on Twitter: @FDNMoutdoors.
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