PA5 - Salisbury | Flight Buzz One Four/Melvin Wooten Memorial

MM - Test Map

Description: Flight Buzz One Four/Melvin Wooten Memorial 9th St. (off W Salisbury Ave.) Salisbury, Pennsylvania GPS: 39.76142, -79.08641 Access: Daylight only. The last 0.1 mile, turning off W. Salisbury Ave, is a gravel lane. It looks like a private driveway, but it is in fact public access all the way to the memorial. Gravel lane and parking lot. PLEASE be careful of children playing in the area. NOTE: This site is offered as a combination with MD1-Barton, 28 miles south of here. Both memorials honor Flight Buzz One Four. Both are Eagle Scout projects. During a horrific storm on January 13, 1964, returning from its rotation on operation Chrome Dome, a 156-foot long B-52 Stratofortress bomber, code named Buzz One Four, with two MK/B53 nine megaton nuclear bombs and two AGM-28 Hound Dog air-to-ground missiles on-board, had its 48 foot tall vertical stabilizer ripped off its tail by turbulent winds at an elevation of 30,000 feet. Shearing of the vertical stabilizer resulted in removal of the left rear horizontal stabilizer, too. With its 185-foot wingspan out of control, the plane rolled and inverted before plummeting. Most of the crew ejected before the loaded bomber crashed into Maryland's remote Savage Mountain. Tail gunner Tech Sergeant Melvin Wooten usually accompanied a 50-caliber machine gun immediately beneath the vertical stabilizer. On this flight, the 27 year old gunner was occupying the Electronic Warfare Officer's seat just 12 feet behind the pilot. Ejecting into the teeth of the dark, hellacious storm, Wooten was severely injured, hitting the ground well north of the crash site. Wooten, unable to walk, drug himself 150 feet through the frozen Pennsylvania snow-covered field to the edge of the Casselman River. He was headed for the lights of Salisbury, Pennsylvania, but died of exposure in the ten degree night air. It was four days after the crash before they found his body, just a few feet from where this memorial stands today. Eagle Scout Anthony Michael Hillegas, Troop 53 of Grantsville, Maryland, designed and built this memorial to honor the memory of Tech Sergeant Wooten more than ten years ago. Made in America: If you want to learn more about the flight and the crash, there are numerous websites to read, including: https://bit.ly/3pTbAyZ  https://bit.ly/3m6BuOJ Instructions: Take a photo similar to the one attached, with rider flag and motorcycle. A second photo may be required for location and/or safety reasons. Refer to Rules 6-8 (https://bit.ly/3m7BRWv) for photo verification. Scorers have final say whether standards are met.

View In Google Maps: https://maps.google.com/?q=39.76142, -79.08641

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