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Remember...David Everett Rollyson Jr.
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David Everett Rollyson Jr. was born July 6, 1925, in Charleston, West Virginia. He was the son of Myrtle Blanche Boggs Rollyson (1900-1982) and David Everett Rollyson (1887-1951).
An obituary in the Charleston Gazette (10 April 1951) provides the following details regarding the short, but highly accomplished, life of Staff Sergeant David E. Rollyson Jr.:
The body of Staff Sgt. Rollyson will be taken from Municipal Auditorium immediately after the memorial service this morning to St. Mark's Methodist Church, where service will be at 2:30 p.m. Rev. Alfred E. Bennett, D. D., will officiate. The body will be sent tonight to Arlington National Cemetery at Arlington, Va., for burial. The body is at Cunningham Mortuary.Members of Phi Sigma Fraternity of Morris Harvey College will be pallbearers.
He was a graduate of South Charleston Junior High School, Stonewall Jackson High School class of 1943, and Morris Harvey College class of 1950.
He was a member of St. Mark's Methodist Church, the Gold Star Class of that church, and Phi Sigma Fraternity of Morris Harvey College.
Sgt. Rollyson served in World War II and was a prisoner of war for 60 days in Germany. He was a member of the Caterpillar Club. He received a Purple Heart Medal and was a three-time recipient of the Distinguished Service medal. He was discharged in November, 1945, and enlisted in the National Guard in 1947.
Surviving are his parents, Mr. and Mrs. David E. Rollyson, Sr., and his grandfather, T. J. Boggs of Frametown.
David worked at the U.S. Post Office before enlisting into the Air Force.
When he was called back to service due to the Korean War, he became a member of the 123rd Maintenance Squadron, 123rd Fighter Bomber Wing, and was stationed at Godman Air Force Base, Kentucky. His aircraft was enroute from Godman to the Charleston [Kanawha] Airport to attend a funeral of fellow guardsman Major Woodford Sutherland when it crashed about eight miles northeast of the airport, killing all 21 Air National Guard personnel aboard. At the time of the tragedy, the West Virginia Air National Guard was only four years old.
Much has been written locally about the crash and its aftermath—the Charleston Gazette and Daily Mail offered timely coverage of the event and its aftermath, and other newspapers around the state followed suit. In a practice no longer familiar, newspapers often published an "extra," which allowed for frequent updates on breaking news. The following account, however, is excerpted from the actual accident report:
After reporting over the Charleston Radio Range at 5000 feet on an IFR flight from Godman Air Force Base, Kentucky to Charleston, West Virginia, the pilot was cleared by Charleston Approach Control to descent to 3500 feet, pending approach clearance. . . . [The pilot then indicated a turn procedure.] The procedure turn report was the last radio contact with the aircraft.The C-47 crashed into a hill approximately 1150 feet high located 4.6 miles from the approach end of runway 23 at Kanawha County Airport and 1.07 miles West Northwest of the Outer Marker beacon. Both wings of the aircraft were sheared off on impact by trees. The fuselage came to rest approximately 125 yards from the point of impact and was almost completely consumed by the fire which apparently was instantaneous with collision. . . .
One of the two survivors of the crash was a rated pilot riding as passenger who succumbed to burn injuries within less than 24 hours. The other survivor lived for approximately one week after the crash. The statements of the survivors indicate that they were positioned further aft in the plane than any of the other passengers and it is worthy of note that one of the survivors stated that to the best of his knowledge all the rest of the passengers who suffered fatal injuries had their safety belts fastened. . . .
[Here the report provides numerous technical details regarding the approach pattern and describes the condition of the aircraft on impact, concluding that the damage made the cause of the crash difficulty to determine.]
The report continues:
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The fact that both survivors reported seeing the airport a short time before the crash lends credence to the belief that the pilot misread the altimeter and was actually flying at 1300 feet indicated when he reported being at 2300 outbound over the inner locator at 1132C. This altitude would put the aircraft below the 1000 foot overcast and above the 500 foot broken ceiling which would enable the passengers to get a glimpse of the airport through the broken cloud layer. |
| Staff Sergeant Rollyson is buried at the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. His mother and father are buried here as well, likely due to his father's service in World War I. David is also remembered at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. |  |
Article prepared by Caroline Kuhn with assistance from Patricia Richards McClure
April 2024
West Virginia Archives and History welcomes any additional information that can be provided about these veterans, including photographs, family names, letters and other relevant personal history.
