And There I was... Story of The F-4 Phantom Crash

Still scanning my pics from 1979 and came across this photo and accompanying clippings from the Georage AFB Hi-Desert Flyer newspaper.

It was Monday, 2 July 1979 and I remember walking back to the dorms after work from my squadron at George AFB, CA when someone yelled "WE LOST A BIRD!". It caught me totally off-gaurd because I really hadn't heard anything - no sound other than the traffic from the road beside me -  so at first all I could think of was "We lost a pigeon??" what the heck. Then he said something to the effect of a plane going down - WTF! I awoke from my daydreaming, turned around and saw a plume of smoke a short distance away accompanied by the now raucous sound of many sirens rushing to the scene. I ran to my dorm room, grabbed my camera, got in the car and drove as fast as I dared out through the Main gate - or 'front' gate as we called it. After which I hung a right and drove to the 'back' gate which was on the same road. The back gate was where the JP-4 fuel tanks were. I stopped the car and saw the wreckage of what used to be an F-4 Phantom burning on the ground and it was dangerously close to those tanks, having crashed only about 100feet away!! I took one pic - that was all I dared take without risking having my camera or film confiscated. The debris field was wide and I was able to pick up a couple of small pieces as souvenirs - which I still have around here somewhere! Unrecognizable as coming from an aircraft they're small gray bent and shattered pieces of metal. Unlike the burning Cadillac incident I posted a few days ago, this time one of the crew was hurt - to my recollection - but not badly, fortunately. 

Enjoy! Opa Fritz

You can see where the F-4 impacted and how dangerously close to the tank farm it was. That tank to the right was just one of several in a cluster filled with JP-4 jet fuel