Blind Tiger Brewery Installs Tribute to Fallen Air Force Officers
On Monday April 29th a tribute to fallen warriors will be unveiled on the wall of the Blind Tiger Brewery & Restaurant. The fallen warriors from the U.S. Air Force experienced a plane crash approximately 8 miles southeast of Topeka on April 29, 1960.
Thanks to the efforts of Mr. Scott Weir, a native Topekan and a dedicated amateur historian of the crash, there will be a tribute to these patriots on the wall of the Blind Tiger Brewery & Restaurant to help us all remember them. The framed tribute includes photographs of the three men and four small pieces of the aircraft recovered from the crash site. This tribute will be unveiled at 5:00 pm on Monday April 29th, which is the 64th anniversary of the crash. Several member of the families of these brave men will be in attendance to the unveiling.
On the afternoon of April 29, 1960 an RB-47H Stratojet electronic surveillance aircraft on approach to the (then) Forbes Air Force Base south of Topeka crashed approximately 8 miles southeast of Topeka. The aircraft was totally destroyed and the three members of the crew lost their lives. These men and their dedication to the defense of our nation should not be forgotten.
They were:
Capt. Paul Jones, 34, Madison WI, Aircraft Commander
1st Lt. Carl Heaberlin, 24, Pleasantville, IA, Pilot
1st Lt. Granville Harkrader, 28, Pampa, TX, Navigator
They were assigned to 338th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron of the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing of the Strategic Air Command. The RB-47s had flown quite a number of spy missions over the Soviet Union but by 1960 our then Soviet adversaries had the ability to shoot them down, and so these missions were not taking place at that time. This particular flight was a test flight after some routine maintenance. The main causes of the crash were probably 1) the weather (it was a rainy, overcast day with low, thick cloud cover, with turbulence), 2) which may have induced spatial disorientation, and probably 3) a faulty attitude indicator.
In April 1960 Forbes Air Force Base was an active component of the Strategic Air Command, which was one of the largest parts of the nuclear defense of our country, to deter the Soviet Union. In 1960 the RB-47 Stratojet, with classified intelligence gathering components, was a leading large aircraft in the Air Force fleet.
The Blind Tiger Brewery & Restaurant is proud to feature a growing number of Topeka history items on our walls for the edification of our patrons. These include images of Carrie Nation, Chief Abram Burnett, John Brown, the KC-135 aircraft (which refueled the RB-47), the Big Red One of Fort Riley, the Ad Astra statue on the top of the State House, and the Kansas State House itself, plus many historic Kansas Breweries.
