Sign Pays Tribute To B-24 Crew That Died -- Scout Offers Memorial To 1944 Bomber Crash

WENATCHEE - When Tom Rasmussen hiked up the Mission Ridge Ski Area a year ago and found no signs to memorialize the spot where a B-24 military bomber crashed in 1944, he knew he had to do something about it.

On Sept. 24 - 50 years after the plane went down during a training mission - Rasmussen officially unveiled a large interpretive sign at a spot overlooking the crash site.

With the help of his father and others, Rasmussen, a sophomore at Eastmont High School in East Wenatchee, created the sign as part of his Eagle Scout survey project.

The sign carries a short narrative about the Sept. 30, 1944, crash and its ties to local folklore. It also names the six crewmen who died, gives details about the B-24 bomber and has a painting of a B-24 by local artist Dick Baerman.

The resort's Bomber Bowl ski run is below the spot at the mountain's 6,100-foot level. The sign is about 10 yards from a wing section off the plane that was mounted on two pedestals in 1992 by Mission Ridge employees.

Rasmussen said he spent six months researching the crash and the B-24 plane and getting the interpretive sign constructed. He also helped raise the $1,200 needed to see the sign project through. More than 200 hours of volunteer work went into the effort.

Rasmussen said he first became interested in the project a year ago when he, his father, Don, and some friends hiked up to the crash site, still littered with hundreds of pieces from the doomed plane. Rasmussen said he was shocked to see nothing in place commemorating the crash.

"Everyone in the valley knows that a bomber crashed here," Rasmussen said. "But they don't know why it crashed, how it got there, who was on it."

The dead crewmen also were an inspiration for Rasmussen as he worked on the project.

"These men died defending our country, and no one even knows that. They were listed later in a newspaper article. But that was it," said Rasmussen, who plans to contact surviving family members this winter and let them know what he's done.

Due to security measures in place during World War II, the plane crash received scant coverage in The Wenatchee World until 1967, when Publisher Wilfred Woods wrote an article on the accident.

Rasmussen received assistance on the project from fellow scouts Lance Dugan, Matt Jeffery, Steve Haas and Gavan Welty.

In 1985, a 12-foot section of the bomber's wing was taken from the crash site and moved to the ski area's Hampton Lodge. When lean snow years followed, employees became superstitious the wing had something to do with that. In 1992, the wing section was returned and mounted on pedestals at the site. Since then, Mission Ridge has enjoyed good snow.

The sunny weather during last month's ceremony was in sharp contrast to what the crew of the doomed flight faced 50 years ago.

Rasmussen said his research showed the weather during the evening of Sept. 30, 1944, was rainy and foggy. He said the crew circled the valley below before heading straight up and crashing with the plane headed west. The plane had taken off from Walla Walla Army Air Base and missed clearing the top of the ridge by about 500 feet.

A pack train removed the bodies as well as some parts of the plane, including machine guns, the next day.

The rest was left to time.

Although souvenir hunters have picked up a few pieces, most of the plane parts remain where they were after the aircraft came down. The engines, for instance, are lined up like they should be.