21 OR MORE DIE IN OHIO WRECK. MANY INJURED AS FAST TRAIN HITS TROOP CARS.
Newcomerstown, O. -- A fast Pennsylvania railroad passenger train ploughed into the rear of a standing troop train during a heavy fog early today, killing at least 21 National Guardsmen.
LT. COL. FRANK TOWNSEND, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., commanding officer of the Pennsylvania National Guard troops aboard the train, said 13 bodies were carried from the wreckage, four died at hospitals, and the bodies of four more soldiers were still in the wreckage. The state highway patrol, however, placed the death toll figure at 25.
COL. TOWNSEND said 44 were injured. All of the dead and most of the injured were members of the 109th Field Artillery Battalion, Pennsylvania National Guard, enroute to Camp Atterbury, Ind., to begin training under Federal Service. The Pennsylvania Guard was one of four militia divisions recently called into Federal Service for the Korean War.
3 Cars Demolished.
Three cars of the troop train, carrying 655 troops, were demolished when the Spirit of St. Louis, enroute from New York to St. Louis with 240 passengers, rammed the rear of the stalled troop carrier at Isleta, five miles west of here. The first unit of the twin-unit Diesel pulling the passenger train plunged into a creek and two cars on the Spirit of St. Louis were derailed. They did not overturn, however, and none of the passengers aboard the passenger train was injured seriously.
Witnesses said the troop train stopped west of a signal when a steam valve controlling the train's air brake system apparently snapped. Crewmen had just placed flares at the rear of the disabled troop carrier when the Spirit of St. Louis plunged out of the dawn and smashed into the end of
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The Chronicle-Telegram Elyria Ohio 1950-09-11
Killed In The Wreck:
Service Battery:
CORP. CARL W. ARMBRUSTER.
CORP. JOHN L. BARNA.
PVT. WILLIAM R. DISBROW.
CORP. JOSEPH E. FLETCHER.
PFC EDWARD W. GALLAGHER.
PVT. WALLACE R. LUDWIG.
WO JAMES F. McGINLEY.
SGT. BERNARD S. OKRASINSKI.
CORP. THOMAS M. OSTRASZEWSKI.
PVT. WILLIAM F. TIERNEY.
CAPT. ARTHUR J. THOMAS.
RCT. THOMAS W. WALLACE.
Battery B.
PFC LEONARD BALONIS.
RCT. EUGENE CARR.
SGT. JOHN W. COX.
RCT. WILLIAM J. DOUGHERTY.
SGT WILLIAM C. EDWARDS.
RCT. HUGH L. FARGUS.
PFC. HAROLD HANDLOS.
PFC CLYDE P. HARDING.
PFC MARTIN F. HORNLEIN.
PFC RONALD J. JACKSON.
SGT. LESTER J. KUEHN.
CORP. LARRY L. LUZENSKI.
RCT. FRANK C. MARTINEZ.
RCT. CHARLES NORTON.
PFC RAYMOND PUDLOWSKI.
RCT RICHARD A. ROYER.
RCT. WILLIAM F. SOBERS.
WO WILLIAM M. WELLINGTON.
SGT. GILBERT B. WHARTON.
PFC EDMUND ZABICKI.
PFC DONALD C. ZIEKER.
List Of Injured:
PFC EDWARD BILSKI.
CORP DAL. D. DAUBERT.
PFC DEAN DAUBERT.
PFC JOHN J. DOUGHTERY.
SECOND LT. MERLE R. EDWARDS.
CORP. FRANCIS D. FISHER.
CORP. LEONARD FLECKNOE.
CORP ARTHUR GIAMPA.
CORP. CYRIL G. GULIUS.
PFC FRED D. HAWKE.
SGT. JOSEPH J. KUDRAK.
CORP NICHOLAS MARSHALL.
CORP CARL O. METZGER.
SGT. KENNETH MISHKELL.
LT. EARL W. PHILLIPS.
PFC FRANCIS X. QUAREQUIO.
CORP. JOHN D. ROOPER.
PFC ROBERT ROWLES.
CORP. JAMES SAMPSON.
PVT. JAMES SAUERWINE.
PVT. ROBERT H. SCHELL.
CAPT. ROBERT SHORTZ.
CORP JOHN SIMONSON
SGT. RAYMOND TALMADGE.
CORP. ROBERT J. THOMPSON.
PFC FRANK TOWH.
CORP. LEONARD J. WALKOVIAK.
PFC ALBERT WILLIAMS.
PFC WILLIAM YESIRVIDA.
CAPT. FRANCIS R. BRANNAN.
M/SGT. ROBERT ROBERTS.
SFC LAWRENCE ROBERTS.
SGT. GEORGE YANCK.
PFC JOSEPH DIMIRCO.
PFC DONALD FORIET.
PFC THOMAS GALLAGHER.
PFC WILLIAM HALL.
CORP. LEWIS A. COMPTON.
RCT. RAMON MARTINEZ.
60 years ago, death took Wyoming Valley’s bravest
Thirty-three members of the 109th Field Artillery died in an Ohio train crash.
RUTH WHISPELL Times Leader Intern
An unbelievably loud noise awoke Virginia Norman in the early morning hours of Sept. 11, 1950.
