The AT6 Monument is a granite memorial to Royal Air Force cadets who were killed while on a training flight during World War II. It stands on Big Mountain, north of Moyers, Oklahoma, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, and was dedicated on February 20, 2000—the 57th anniversary of the deadly crashes.

Background

The United Kingdom was hard-pressed to train

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

cadets during World War II, since the skies over Britain were an aerial battleground. British student pilots were sent to Australia, Canada, South Africa and the United States for training. In the U.S. they were sent to a number of states—among them Oklahoma and Texas. In Oklahoma they established RAF training schools at

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

and

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, and in Texas they established one at

Terrell Terrell, Terell, Terrel, or Terrelle may refer to: Places United States *Terrell, Georgia, unincorporated community *Terrell, North Carolina, unincorporated community in Catawba County, North Carolina, United States *Terrell, Texas, city in Kau ...

. Courses of instruction included navigation, meteorology, aero engines, and principles of flight. Aviation cadets at Terrell superimposed a map of Europe over Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico and Mississippi. As their "

zero milestone The Zero Milestone is a zero mile marker monument in Washington, D.C. intended as the initial milestone from which all road distances in the United States should be measured when it was built. At present, only roads in the Washington, D.C. a ...

" they chose Terrell to serve as "London, England". Radiating outward from Terrell, at precise mileages, were the following stand-in cities: Royal Airforce Badge

* Albuquerque, New Mexico, as Warsaw, Poland * Beaumont, Texas, as

Paris, France Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

* Henderson, Texas, as

Dunkirk, France Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.Lubbock, Texas, as Cork, Ireland * Turner, Arkansas, as Emden, Germany *

Vicksburg, Mississippi Vicksburg is a historic city in Warren County, Mississippi, United States. It is the county seat, and the population at the 2010 census was 23,856. Located on a high bluff on the east bank of the Mississippi River across from Louisiana, Vi ...

, as

Cologne, Germany Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 million ...

An important part of training included frequent flight time in the cockpit. Training flights served this purpose, to acquaint the student fliers with real-life conditions in flight. Training flights often flew in formations of aircraft, to mimic real-world conditions during war.

Crashes

On February 20, 1943, a British training flight departed its airbase at Terrell, Texas—known as the No. 1 British Flying Training School—en route for the No. 3 British Flying Training School at Miami, Oklahoma. The students were flying a formation of twelve training aircraft known as AT-6s. The AT-6—an acronym for "Advanced Trainer"—was first manufactured in 1930. It was a two-seater, one-engine trainer plane. Their objective was to complete a low-level, cross-country training flight. Poor weather hampered the flight, however, particularly as they approached the

Kiamichi Mountains The Kiamichi Mountains (Choctaw: ''Nʋnih Chaha Kiamitia'') are a mountain range in southeastern Oklahoma. A subrange within the larger Ouachita Mountains that extend from Oklahoma to western Arkansas, the Kiamichi Mountains sit within Le Flore, ...

Pushmataha County, Oklahoma Pushmataha County is a county in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 11,572. Its county seat is Antlers. The county was created at statehood from part of the former territory of the ...

. According to local residents the weather was unfavorable. One, Lee Stone, described ground conditions as very foggy, with a rainy mist. Another, Calvin Moyer, who was attempting to hunt hogs, stopped due to the fog, which made it hard to see. The

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

s encountered similar conditions in the air—and had not been briefed to expect them, or what to do if encountering them. Several planes turned back to Terrell, but others continued. Twelve pilots eventually landed at Miami as planned, but three planes encountered serious difficulties. "I found myself in the classic situation—trapped in a valley with no confident idea of where we were nor where the high ground might be," said John Wall, one of the three beleaguered pilots. By this point the three troubled pilots found themselves over the Kiamichi Mountains, which rise progressively in elevation from south to north. The valley to which Wall referred is the Impson Valley, which is framed by steep mountains to its east and west. AT6 Crash Survivors

Pilot Wall and his navigator, "Wilbur" Wright, made the difficult decision to land on the floor of Impson Valley, rather than risk themselves and their plane in unknown territory. "I decided to make a wheels-down precautionary landing," Wall later recalled. He landed successfully in a field known as Bedford's meadow belonging to farmer and rancher Bill Perrin, outside the isolated mountain community of

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. "We were shortly surrounded by the local folk who looked after us extremely well," Wall said. A young family, Mr. and Mrs. E.F. Jordan, gave them overnight accommodations. Things took a tragic turn for the worse regarding the other two planes, which found themselves on a path several miles to the east, taking them over the rural community of Moyers, Oklahoma, behind which the mountains rise precipitously. The pilots successfully cleared Rodney Mountain (764 feet), then passing over Moyers. Immediately behind Moyers is White Rock Mountain (1,023 feet), and one AT-6 crashed into its steep southern slope. The plane slid into a tree, killing its crew. W.E. McMahan and other local would-be rescuers who ascended the mountain believed the fliers would have lived had the plane not impacted the tree. They also believed the pilot, Vincent Henry Cockman, 20, of Ilford, England, had lived for a short time after the crash as his head was turned to face the body of his navigator, Frank Frostick, 21, of

North Walsham North Walsham is a market town and civil parish in Norfolk, England, within the North Norfolk district. Demography The civil parish has an area of and in the 2011 census had a population of 12,634. For the purposes of local government, the pa ...

, England. The third missing plane managed to pass above White Rock Mountain but apparently lost control, spiraling down into the face of Big Mountain (1,145 feet). Big Mountain, which marks the southern end of the rugged and geologically significant Johns Valley, is between the rural communities of Moyers and Kosoma. The third wreck took longer to locate, and was not found until the next day. Piloted by Mike Hosier, 19, of

Swindon, England Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...

and navigated by Maurice Jenson, 19, of

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, the plane came straight down into the mountain, and "struck the ground head on," according to McMahan. What the local rescuers found on Big Mountain struck them as almost eerie: the force of the plane's impact "threw a big rock up out of the ground, making a natural tombstone." This almost uncanny circumstance remained with the men for decades, causing them to recount it many years later. All four bodies were taken to

Antlers, Oklahoma Antlers is a city in and the county seat of Pushmataha County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 2,453 at the 2010 census, a 3.9 percent decline from 2,552 in 2000. The town was named for a kind of tree that becomes festooned with antl ...

—the county seat and largest town in Pushmataha County, approximately eight miles from the crash sites—and then to Terrell, where they were interred in the British burial ground in Oakland Memorial Park cemetery.

The monument

Many years later news of the crashes came to the attention of school students in

Rattan, Oklahoma Rattan is a town in Pushmataha County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 276 at the 2020 census. Geography Rattan is located in southern Pushmataha County at the intersection of Oklahoma routes 3 and 93. Rock Creek flows past just ...

—a country hamlet 12 miles east of Antlers, and over the Kiamichi Mountains from the crash sites—who elected to pursue it as a research topic. Rattan, as a very small school, divided its boys and girls into separate reading classes—made necessary by the fact that its small, single-purpose gymnasium is not sufficiently large to accommodate both groups of students as a unisex

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorat ...

class. As a result, it scheduled girls and boys to be in reading and P.E. classes on alternating classroom periods. It was the boys’ sixth grade reading class, taught by Beth Lawless (Mrs. Bruce Lawless), which initiated the research. After delving into the matter for several weeks the students came to believe the crash victims should be commemorated. They found it hard to believe local residents no longer remembered this unusual piece of their local World War II history, and considered it sad that four grieving families had been left in England during the war, with no sense of proper closure brought to the affair. The boys decided to erect a marker at the crash site on Big Mountain. The site, located in a level

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, is adjacent to an old logging road. In addition, it had the additional merit of being known—the crash site on White Rock Mountain is much less accessible, and the local rescuers, who were by then in their 70s and 80s, were unable to take the students to the location. A local craftsman who builds cemetery grave markers donated his time and labor. The students undertook a fund-raising campaign to raise the money necessary for materials. They were successful, and the resulting marker is made of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

, tall and perpendicular, and engraved with information about the crash. The students then undertook locating surviving family members in England, and again were successful. Families of all four fliers were found, in addition to John Wall and Wilbur Wright themselves. Wall had since the war moved to New Zealand. AT6 Monument Before Installation

Word reached

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and

Air New Zealand Air New Zealand Limited () is the flag carrier airline of New Zealand. Based in Auckland, the airline operates scheduled passenger flights to 20 domestic and 30 international destinations in 18 countries, primarily around and within the Pacif ...

of the students’ endeavor. British Airways donated 18 free tickets for the students’ use, and Air New Zealand offered to fly John Wall to the ceremony, free of charge. The students used the British Airways tickets to fly all survivors, plus flier Wright, to

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

—for later transportation to Oklahoma. Several members of the British press corps also accompanied the flights, including reporters from the

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and ''

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'' and '' Daily Mail'' newspapers, as well as a local newspaper from a county seat. The marker was dedicated on February 20, 2000—the 58th anniversary of the crash landings. According to guest registers and the

Oklahoma Highway Patrol The Oklahoma Highway Patrol (OHP) is a major state law enforcement agency of the government of Oklahoma. A division of the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, the OHP has traffic enforcement jurisdiction throughout the state. OHP was legislat ...

, over 1,000 people crowded onto the mountaintop for the ceremony. News of it was broadcast throughout England, and reported in many newspapers around the world after being carried on the

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wire service. British Attendees

Special guests included the assistant

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s from the embassies of the United Kingdom and New Zealand, in Washington, D.C., and also the British

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assigned to the American Southwest, from Houston. All three remarked that this was one of the most unusual and moving events of their diplomatic and military careers—the students, who were from a poor and rural area, had taken on an impossible task—and accomplished it themselves. The marker stands next to the "natural tombstone" in a quiet glade of pine trees. The site is easily reachable from

Oklahoma State Highway 2 State Highway 2, abbreviated SH-2 or OK-2, is a designation for two distinct highways maintained by the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Though they were once connected, the middle section of highway was concurrent with three different U.S. highways, s ...

—a sign erected by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol (originally intended for use on the day of commemoration, but also as a gift to the students by grateful troopers) guides would-be visitors from the turn-off approximately two miles north of Moyers. Recalling that long-ago day in 1943, John Wall drew his thoughts to a conclusion, telling the students, "Turning back sooner would have been the smart thing—but then, youth always presses on." AT6 Dedication Ceremony

Yearly Commemorations

Small remembrance ceremonies have taken place at the monument each year since the original one in 2000. The Choctaw Nation's Color Guard has presented and retired the colors—including Britain's Union Jack—and the Antlers chapter of Veterans of Foreign Wars has assisted, hosting receptions in its lodge hall following the ceremonies on the mountain. Choctaw Nation Color Guard on Feb

During recent years a detachment of Royal Air Force officers stationed in Texas has participated, coming annually to join local residents in remembering their fallen. The officers occasionally spend an informal “work day” at the site, clearing brush and making sure the central gathering spot remains clear. Residents of the mountain, and others, also maintain the site. A rededication of the monument took place in 2018, to mark the 75th anniversary of the crashes. Britain's Consul General to the United States, along with a group of Royal Air Force officers and their families, visitors from England, a group from Terrell, Texas and local residents, gathered at the site. The Choctaw Nation assisted with logistics, and its Chief and Assistant Chief hosted the gathering. Its Color Guard presented and retired the colors, this time accompanied by the RAF detachment. School students from Rattan, some of whom are Choctaw Indians, sang “God Save the Queen” and laid roses on the “natural tombstone.”''Biskinik'', the official newspaper of the Choctaw Nation, April 2018, p. 12. https://www.choctawnation.com/sites/default/files/Biskinik_April_2018_Original.pdf Craig ODonnell

References

{{Coord, 34.415378, N, 95.614418, W, display=title British military memorials and cemeteries Buildings and structures in Pushmataha County, Oklahoma Military monuments and memorials in the United States Monuments and memorials in Oklahoma 2000 sculptures Granite sculptures in Oklahoma 2000 establishments in Oklahoma

Background

Crashes

The monument

Yearly Commemorations

Further reading

References