Posted on 03/03/2009 8:32:09 AM PST by Constitution Day
PENSACOLA, Fla. – Debbie Harris knew the military dog tag and small metal emblem of a Navy fighter squadron she recently found in the sand near her home on an Alabama beach belonged to a Blue Angels pilot who was killed when his jet crashed there a half-century ago.
But she wanted to find out more about Cmdr. Robert Nicholls Glasgow and what happened , so she turned to her aunt and uncle, who live in Pensacola, home of the National Museum of Naval Aviation. Their search led them to the museum's director, Bob Rasmussen, a retired Navy captain and once a member of the famed flight demonstration team.
"I said to myself, 'Isn't that a coincidence,' " Rasmussen mused. "Of all the people that they might have brought this to, it happened to be the person who was flying with him the morning he was killed in that crash."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Neat story!
Rip Cmdr. Robert Nicholls Glasgow.
You may want to notify the Southern Calif. ping list if you still run it...
(Harris) wants to give them to Glasgow's family, but she's been unable to find any relatives through her research on the Internet. An Oct. 15, 1958, article on the crash in the Pensacola News Journal indicated Glasgow had a wife and four children and that his parents lived in El Monte, Calif.
There are no coincidences, only convergences
There is an F-11 Tiger in Blue Angels livery hanging in the atrium of the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Uniondale, Long Island.
Doing acrobatics too low. The same thing that killed Sanjay Gandhi. Of course, that might not have been an altogether bad thing...
Forgot the word: Synchronicity
Thank you. I hope that they can locate this family.
This story was of interest to me since a similar thing happened to a good friend of my grandfather’s.
Alton Joyner was among the first wave of troops to invade Anzio, Italy in World War II.
Sometime in the 1980’s, a local woman in Anzio found his dog tags on the beach and sent it to his mother’s address (which was stamped on the tag) with a very kind letter. Of course, his mother had long since passed.
Unlike the pilot in this article, Mr. Joyner survived his rendezvous with destiny. I believe he said at the time that he remembered he’d lost his dog tags when he hit the beach, but just got a new set and forgot all about it.
The Post Office tracked him down and the story was all over the local and regional news.
He passed away in 1994 within months of my grandpa, but treasured this symbol of his service to our nation till he died. I am sure his family still treasures it as well, as I do my grandpa’s WWII dog tags and memorabilia.
Alabama ping
Ping of interest.
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Thanks for the photo. Was that Cmdr. Glasgow’s particular F-11?
I would also like to know more about his family. I grew up in El Monte and was eleven years old at the time.
Hmm..I grew up there too! My grandfather operated a grape vineyard there in the early ‘30’s.
They are keepsakes, aren’t they.
I have a set from grandpa (WWI)
Dad (WWII and ROK)
Uncle (WWII and ROK)
Mine
and have added one from my son. Son listed his religous pref as Druid...must have been an off day : )
El Monte High Class of ‘65
Cool! My Mom graduated from there in 1943. I and my sibilings went to Rosemead High.
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