Editor, The Progress:

My how time does fly. I was reading the 50 years ago column about the plane crash in Liberty.

Yes I remember that day Easley Fire Chief Clyde Ellenburg, Dub Former (city policeman & vol. Fireman) and myself a paid fireman were standing in the back of the City Hall, A military plane was circling overhead, I made a remark that a plane must be down some where nearby and about that time the fire phone rang and Donaldson Air Force Base Fire Department stated that a C 119 Cargo had crashed behind the Liberty High School (Not the present high school) and requested that we assist the Liberty Fire Dept., until their crash truck could arrive. When we arrived a fuel line had ruptured and was on fire. We begin using foam and as we begin running low on foam a Highway Patrolman speed to Donaldson AFB and returned with several 5 gallon buckets of foam, we used until the crash truck arrived.

I was in the AF Reserve at that time (having served in the regulars in the 1940s and 1950s. I was supposed to have been a crew member on that plane for training but Jack Wood another fireman ask me to trade weekend so he could go see his daughter who’s husband was stationed in Alabama

As I recall the only injuries the crew sustained were bruised nose when the straps of the cutes opened.

Editor’s note: The writer is the retired Fire Chief for the City of Easley