Chuck Edwards
Cherohala – U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C. of Hendersonville) recently re-introduced legislation that would move a memorial off of the Cherohala Skyway and closer to the site of a crash that killed nine U.S. Air Force crew members more than 42 years ago.
The families of those who perished in the Aug. 31, 1982, accident have requested that the existing memorial near Huckleberry Knob be relocated to the Stratton Ridge Rest Area, which sits at Mile Marker 2 in North Carolina and is geographically closer to the crash site on John's Knob.
"Western North Carolina will never forget the tragedy that occurred in 1982 when nine Air Force crew members lost their lives in our district," Edwards said in a May 23 release about re-introducing the "Stratton Ridge Air Force Memorial Act."
"The families and supporters of these service members, who have helped honor them in the years since their passing, have requested that the memorial be moved to a more prominent location that is closer to the site and available for the public to visit. This bill will give the families of crew members who died in this tragic accident the authority needed to work with the U.S. Forest Service to move the memorial to a more accessible site, keeping the memories of our nation’s fallen soldiers alive for years to come.”
A crew of nine Air Force crew members departed on a C-141B cargo jet from Charleston, S.C., Air Force Base at 12:57 p.m. Aug. 31, 1982, using the call sign "Amore 66." The flight served as a training exercise for radar evasion.
The crew hit a storm over the North Carolina mountains and at 1:50 p.m., radio contact was lost. When the wreckage was located the following day, the tail section of the plane had been thrown over the summit of John's Knob and landed near Stratton Ridge. John's Knob splits Monroe County, Tenn., and Graham County; and is inaccessible to vehicles, but can be reached via the Benton MacKaye Trail.
All nine on board were killed. It was estimated that the crash – which occurred 70 feet from the top of John's Knob – occurred at 260 mph.
The existing memorial was dedicated in 2015, while a 40th anniversary service was held on Aug. 31, 2022.
When The Graham Star visited the memorial Monday, the site was barely visible from the wide pulloff available next to the Skyway. Wind damage had snapped a pair of American flags surrounding the memorial in half, while foliage had almost obscured the marker from public view on the roadway.
The memorial is on privately owned property, so a gravel road that would allow drivers direct access to the marker was obscured by a gate.
The proposed new site – Stratton Ridge – is a heavily used rest area just inside the North Carolina state line, with restrooms and picnic tables. More importantly, it is much closer to the location where so many lives were changed 42 years ago.
The bill was first introduced in 2022, but failed to pass.