Posted 1:22 am Saturday, October 08, 2011
Family Donates Bomber Crash Artifacts To Museum
By TIM MONZINGO
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
For his entire life, the image of Henry P. Nunes' father was a product of the stories and recollections of his mother, uncles and other family members.
Nunes was born two months after his father, U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Henry Nunes, died when the B-25D bomber he was in smashed into water in 1947.
The crash, which took the lives of Nunes and three other service men, did not occur over the open waters of the Pacific or some foreign land -- it happened only hours from where the soldier was stationed and only seven miles southwest of Tyler.
Over the course of 30 years, Nunes collected the memories and artifacts that littered the ground beneath his family tree, only to realize that time was taking its toll on them.
"I realized I was ending up with all this stuff nobody else knew about," Henry Nunes said. "It struck me as being a little more appropriate (to bring the items) to Tyler."
When his father's plane went down after leaving Love Field Dallas, it "went into a spin," according to a news article from July 28, 1947, about the crash. "In an attempt to miss a tree in its path, the plane veered to the left and slipped into the water," crashing into Sam R. Hill Lake, seven miles southwest of Tyler, the article reads.
As a sort of memorial to where his father died, Nunes decided to donate dozens of items to the Historical Aviation Memorial Museum at Tyler Pounds Regional Airport.
The items include a parachute, two jackets, a hat and piles of documents. Letters to his father from overseas, with parts redacted by razor blade for security reasons, the crash report and pictures of the wreckage and crew are included as well.
Nunes' uncle, Leo Nunes, was about to graduate from flight school at the air base in Eagle Pass when he got news that his brother had died in the crash.
Leo, now 92 years old, said family had planned to visit him after he graduated, and he called to make sure everything was in order. That's when he found out.
"I had to get up there because she (Henry Nunes' wife, Emily) needed some help," he said.
A lieutenant colonel who was a friend of his drove to Eagle Pass to talk to Leo and told him a plane would arrive the next day to fly him down to Dallas and on to Tyler.
It was Leo who ultimately identified his brother's remains.
According to news articles, recovering the aircraft and bodies was an extensive, and closely guarded, affair.
Heavy equipment was brought in to drag the mangled wreckage from the water. Part of the dam that formed the lake had to be destroyed to make the wreck accessible.
"A part of the dam has been dynamited, and about two feet of the mud-covered ship could be seen ..." an article written two days after the crash reads. "Some four feet of water had to be drained from the lake."
The twisted, unrecognizable wreckage underscores the speed and ferocity of the crash.
"It must have been pretty horrifying," Nunes said. "It happened so low there was nothing they could do."
Ultimately, the military determined the crash was due to some kind of engine failure, he said. The crew and Nunes had significant experience in the planes, as detailed by flight records the Army gave to the family, he said.
Leo said his brother was an accomplished pilot who had been a commercial pilot and U.S. Army reserves training pilot before joining the military full-time.
PRESERVATION
Museum President Carolyn Verver said people in Tyler to this day, even some museum staff, still can recall the wreck. For a long time, though, the crash was only a story.
"We didn't really have any tangible history," she said. "This is a piece of Tyler's history."
She said the museum was grateful and excited about getting the donations.
Because Nunes donated such a volume of material to the museum, it won't be available for public viewing until next year, museum curator Danny Sessums said.
"It takes some considerable time to catalog them right," he said. "It will probably be after the first of the year" before the items are on display.
Nunes said bringing the items from his home in Santa Fe, N.M., to Tyler instead of Dallas, closer to where his father was stationed, felt right. As many of the documents and items show their age, he said he didn't want those memories and pieces of his father's life to fade away from the family.
That seems to be the truth for other family members, like his mother, who gave him the collection a few pieces at a time over the years.
"I have a feeling that a lot of this stuff (my mother) held onto because of the memories it held for her," Nunes said.
Although more than 700 miles from him and close to 1,000 away from Leo, who lives in Antioch, Ill., giving the items to the museum should preserve them for the rest of his family, he said.
Nunes said several items of his father's remain in the family, being held by other members, at his home or by his children.
More than 60 years after his death, his father remains more than just a distant memory.
"All these subtle details came out," Nunes said
At least one of the letters being donated is addressed to Hank Nunes, the elder Nunes' nickname. The nickname passed from father to son. Today, the nickname sticks in the family.
