Friday, August 17, 1945 was no different from any other summer day.
\nThe heat was stifling, as usual, and the late summer humidity simply added to the oppressive Texas sun. The war in Europe was over and the Japanese had finally been defeated in the Pacific. Hopes of a future were beginning to return to the American spirit as the worst war in world history was coming to a close.
\nThe horrors of the war, however, would be re-lived on that day in the small north Texas town of Weatherford, Texas. And a Tyrone man was part of it.
\nSgt. Donald E. Reed was a gunner aboard a B-29 bomber out of Alamogordo Airfield. He was tragically killed when the plane he was in hit another B-29 bomber from Clovis Field in New Mexico, while on a routine training run.
\nReed will be honored in the fall, along with 19 other airmen, who\u2019s fate was decided in the skies over Weatherford that night.
\nThe city of Weatherford, 28 miles west of Fort Worth, will honor the crews of both planes by erecting a bronze plaque at the local library that will tell their story and list the name and hometown of each man. Eighteen of the 20 men died that night, but two managed to survive and are now 80- and 83-years-old. Both will attend the ceremony, along with military and civilian personnel and relatives of those who died in the crash.
\nBob Hopkins, a member of the Parker County Heritage Society is interested in speaking with any family members of Reed. He can be reached at RHop169812@aol.com or 817-596-9745.
\n\u201cI just want to reach the family members of this honorable man to let them know what we\u2019re trying to do,\u201d said Hopkins. \u201cI\u2019ve been contacted by some family members of other people, but haven\u2019t heard anything about Mr. Reed. It\u2019s important to us and important to his family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Friday, August 17, 1945 was no different from any other summer day. The heat was stifling, as usual, and the late summer humidity simply added to the oppressive Texas sun. The war in Europe was over and the Japanese had finally been defeated in the Pacific. Hopes of a future were beginning to return to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}