Page 14 - Discover Winter 2023

Tragedy on Sharp Top CONTINUED

years without ever suspecting what war was far from won. Training time was

might lie on the terrain below them. compressed, and the B-25 was used in
every theater.”
In spite of the seeming oddity of
such a crash, it was actually one of six For the sake of reference, remember

such incidents that were handled by the that the crash occurred on February 2,
Army over a two day period. In at least 1943, less than two months after the
one of those crashes, workers had been attack on Pearl Harbor, so for us, the
busy trying to extend the runway of war had barely begun.

an airfield in Richmond. As these men
Since the crash site is within the
were working, the runway remained in
boundaries of the Blue Ridge Parkway,
use, and a fighter pilot ran his plane off
the National Park Service also has
the end of that runway.
jurisdiction and responsibilities with
An Army officer on scene was quoted respect to protect it as a historic
in a telephone transcript, saying, “If they resource. In addition to scavengers
have got to work on it and fly on it too, and souvenir hunters, the Park Service
all they can do is fly over their heads and reports that one group had desecrated

hope nobody gets hurt. But they say this the site by attempting to rearrange the
is war.” pieces of the wreckage back into the
original shape of the plane.
The reply on the other end: “Yes, that’s

the answer we get, too.” Compounding these challenges, the
rocky slope upon which the wreckage
It’s difficult to imagine such a
rests is treacherous to hikers, and every
conversation taking place in the present
year there are people who venture there
day. The horrors of World War II
only to injure themselves and then have
were felt everywhere. In fact, William
to be carried out. Given the rugged
McClure, one of the five men who were
terrain, this means that rescue workers
killed in the Sharp Top crash had two
have a risky job of carrying those folks
fraternity brothers who were also killed
to safety. This is why the location of
in related incidents. In fact one of them
the crash site has not been widely
was his best friend, and he died on the
publicized, in spite of the fact that a
same day as McClure.
memorial plaque is placed there.

Army Chaplain Jeffrey Clemens
explains why such crashes were
commonplace.

“The war wouldn’t wait. We had to
train 200,000 pilots, and in 1943, the

12 Discover Smith Mountain Lake WINTER 2022