 |
Remember...Edwin Keatley Whittington
|
They also served: When we consider casualties of the many conflicts in which our dedicated servicemen and women were participants, we tend to think of those who were killed in action. But we must also consider those who perished in some other capacity while they were in service to their nation. Such was the case of Captain Edwin Keatley Whittington. Capt. Whittington was the pilot of a C-47 transport that crashed near the Kanawha Airport on April 8, 1951. Because of the timeframe, he and 20 others on the plane (19 died in the crash and two later, in hospital) are considered casualties of the Korean War. The crash of the C-47 was considered a "double tragedy"; the aim of its journey from Godman Air Force Base in Kentucky to Charleston was to attend a funeral for a comrade in arms (Major Woodford Sutherland) who had been killed in a training accident in Florida.
The pilot of the ill-fated C-47 was Edwin Keatley Whittington. He was born at Charleston, Kanawha County, West Virginia, on October 18, 1913, to Owen Wiley Whittington (b. 1876) and Ethel Parker Thaxton Whittington (b. 1880). He had one older brother, Owen Ray Whittington (b. 1910). His younger siblings were Bernard W. Whittington (b. 1921) and Elizabeth Mae Whittington (b. 1923; married name Gillespie). Mrs. Gillespie as a family member provided much of the information that determined Edwin's eligibility to be included on the Veterans Memorial at the State Capitol.
Educated in the public schools of Kanawha County, Edwin (or Keatley, as he was often known) graduated from Dunbar High School in 1932. On January 20, 1942, he married Orpha Velma Schultze in Florida, presumably because that was where he was stationed in those early months of World War II. The U.S. had officially entered the war a little more than a month earlier, but Whittington most likely knew what was ahead for him.
There's no question that he was a seasoned, skilled pilot. Before he offered his skills to the U.S. Army Air Force, he had served in the Auxiliary Air Force of the RAF. He was a former employee of the Charleston Gazette, where he had met his future wife. (Dallas C. Higbee, "Victims Logged Many Hours over Fatal Hill," Charleston Gazette, 9 April 1951.) In May 1943 they welcomed their only child, daughter Kathryn J. Whittington (married name: Federle).
When Keatley registered for the draft on October 16, 1940, he indicated he was living in Sissonville; the person who would always know his address was his mother, Ethel. Obviously, the Air Force was the correct fit for him, and he ended up in the 369th Fighter Squadron. Writing for the publication The Graybeards, Jack Tamplin states: "The 167th Fighter Bomber Squadron of the West Virginia Air National Guard was formed on March 7, 1947 shortly after the end of World War II. The roots of the 167th lie in the 369th Fighter Squadron of the Eighth Air Force in Europe during World War II. The 369th participated in the Normandy Invasion, European Air Offensive, Ardennes, Central Europe, the Rhineland and the Northern France campaigns." ("They Also Served," November/December 1999: 17.)
World War II was just one chapter in the story of Edwin Keatley Whittington. Keatley's service did not end with the capitulation of Germany in 1945. Prior to the war, he had trained well; according to Higbee, before World War II, Edwin had been a civilian flier; he had logged hundreds of hours in the air over the Charleston area. He would have had no qualms about approaching the Charleston airport on the trip from Godman. He knew the terrain well; Higbee says, "The pilot of the ill-fated transport, Capt. Edwin Keatley Whittington, was considered probably the best ‘big ship' pilot in the entire squadron."
Much has been written locally about the crash and its aftermath—the Charleston Gazette and Daily Mail covered the story extensively. 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:
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.The time lapse of only 2 minutes from the position over the inner located outbound until the procedure report further suggests the actions of this pilot in setting up his approach were distinctly hurried. One wrist watch found in the wreckage was stopped at 1136C, so the time of the accident is assumed as between 1135C and 1136.
While the failure of the ILS equipment might be considered as conducive to the accident, the pilot was aware of the malfunction and planned to make his approach independently of this system. It does not appear therefore that this failure should be considered as a direct cause factor. (Report of AF Aircraft Accident, West Virginia State Archives.)
Another group of airmen traveled in a separate plane, but upon notification of the crash, they returned to Godman. A joint memorial service for the West Virginia casualties was held at the Municipal Auditorium in Charleston.
Capt. Whittington was a well-decorated veteran of World War II, having earned the Victory Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Service Medal, and the American Service Medal. He is buried in Cunningham Memorial Park in St. Albans, Kanawha County, West Virginia.
Article prepared by Patricia Richards McClure, who gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Syd Edwards, who has researched extensively the story of the C-47
March 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.
