Remembrance service for 1950 crash victims

A service to remember four servicemen killed in a military plane crash nearly 63 years ago in Pickens County takes place this afternoon near the crash site. On November 11, 1950 an Air Force C-82 twin-engine “Flying Boxcar” carrying four servicemen took off from Maxwell Field in Montgomery, Alabama and was due to land at Greenville Air Force Base. They never made it. On the approach to Greenville, the C-82 plowed into Bully Mountain in northern Pickens County. Killed was passenger, Staff Sgt. Walter Lott of Pensacola, Florida. The three dead crewmen were members of a Pittsburgh reserve wing: Capt. John Stuckrath, 1st Lt. Robert Schmitt, and Staff Sgt. John Davis Bloomer. Today’s service at 2 o’clock takes place near the Pickens County community of Sunset inside the Timmerman Natural Resources Area at Jocassee Gorges. A monument to the men has been placed near the crash site.