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With Mount Charleston in the background, Steve Ririe, front, explains his plan Thursday for a memorial for 14 men who died there in a 1955 plane crash. He is flanked by Austin Hales, left, Chad Richins and Jared Dye, Venture Scouts from Troop 314. Photo by Gary Thompson. Crash site: Click on the image for an enlargement. Graphic by Mike Johnson. A bent propeller from a C-54 transport plane is among the remnants that remain atop Mount Charleston from the fatal 1955 crash. PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE RIRIE CRASH VICTIMS The 14 men who died in the Nov. 17, 1955, crash of a C-54 military transport plane on Mount Charleston were: 1st Lt. George Pappas Jr., pilot; 1st Lt. Paul Winham, co-pilot; Staff Sgt. Clayton Farris, mechanic; Airman 2nd Class Guy Fasolas, attendant; John Gains, civilian; Edwin Urolatis, civilian; James Brown, civilian; William Marr Jr., civilian; James Bray, civilian; Rodney Kreimendahl, civilian; Terence O'Donnell, civilian; Fred Hanks, civilian; Harold Silent, civilian; Richard Hruda, civilian. The address for memorial donations is: 1955 Plane Crash Memorial Fund c/o Steve Ririe Suite 101 8665 W. Flamingo Road Las Vegas NV 89147 -- REVIEW JOURNAL

Monday, January 22, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

14 died in Cold War service

Plane crash victims anonymous for 45 years

Steve Ririe trudged uphill through shin-deep snow to reach a knoll in Kyle Canyon where he could see the white peak of Mount Charleston poking into an azure sky.

Standing in the lower elevations, surrounded by pine trees and manzanita shrubs, Ririe marks the spot where he wants to put a granite slab memorial with 14 bronze stars in the front and a single one on the back that will stand for "all those who have anonymously given their lives in secret projects."

It was chilly there last week, but not as cold as the day more than 45 years ago when rescuers with horses braved blizzard conditions to find the wreckage of an Air Force plane, where they retrieved 14 frozen bodies and recovered top-secret documents about the U-2 spy plane that gave the United States an edge in the Cold War.

Since the summer of 1998, Ririe, a Boy Scout leader and history buff, has been puzzled by the site where snow blankets bits of aircraft parts and a propeller that still remain from the C-54 military transport plane that crashed.

"While I was up there sitting all by myself, I was contemplating how big the plane was. I envisioned snow blowing over the fuselage, the door flapping in the wind," he said. "I came down from the mountain knowing that I wanted to find out who they were."

It was on that treeless slope near Mount Charleston's peak that the plane crashed on Nov. 17, 1955, killing everyone on board. Besides the pilot, co-pilot and crew, the victims included some of the engineers and designers of the high-flying U-2. Others on board were employed by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Ririe's two-year endeavor has turned up declassified CIA and Air Force reports documenting the crash. The reports explain how the pilot, 1st Lt. George Pappas, became disoriented by foul weather and a relatively low cloud ceiling en route from Lockheed's facility in Burbank, Calif., to the secret airstrip at Groom Lake, often referred to as Area 51. Then known as "Watertown," the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas is where the U-2 was tested.

"They thought they were turning away from the mountain, but they actually turned into it," Ririe said, explaining how the last-second, "corkscrew" maneuver sent the aircraft soaring in an attempt to clear the 11,300-foot ridge.

Instead, the plane clipped the ridge 50 feet below the crest, skipped about 60 feet and slid another 20 feet before it came to rest and burned.

Last year, Ririe got his Venture Scouts -- formerly known as Explorer Scouts -- from Troop 314 of the Boy Scouts of America Boulder Dam Area Council involved in an effort to raise money and awareness about the crash.

One scout, Jared Dye, a Bonanza High School senior, said building a monument would mean "giving 14 people back their places in history."

Two other scouts, Chad Richins and Austin Hales, also Bonanza seniors, agreed.

"It's great for the people to know what happened here," Richins said.

Said Hales: "It's like a memory that will always be there to show your grandkids."

Ririe, an insurance agent, enlisted the help of the U.S. Forest Service, state Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, and a handful of government contractors and agencies to have a public memorial built honoring the nation's secret Cold War warriors.

Rawson has already begun the process, urging "fellow Nevadans" in a Dec. 19 letter to help by "giving generously" to build the monument.

Ririe estimates he will need "a couple hundred thousand dollars" to do the job right.

Ririe's research recently led him to Brian Kreimendahl, the son of crash victim Rodney Kreimendahl, who designed of the U-2's horizontal tail. But he has not been able to locate survivors of any of the other crash victims.

Brian Kreimendahl is grateful that someone wants to honor his father. Like his father, Brian Kreimendahl works for Lockheed -- now called Lockheed-Martin -- as a structural engineer at the company's Palmdale, Calif., plant.

"All I knew was that he was on some kind of secret job and that was about it," he said. When U-2 pilot Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, "my uncle told me that was the plane my father worked on. But I was never told by anybody with official status that he was working on the U-2. I found out by asking at Lockheed (in) about 1980," Kreimendahl said.

Rodney Kreimendahl had a knack for designing some of the fastest competition planes, known as "midget racers."

"Because of my father's natural talent and love of aircraft, he worked for (Lockheed's legendary aircraft engineer) Kelly Johnson on the X-7, F-104, the Vertical Riser and then the U-2," he said.

"I remember my father as a loving man. (We) joined the YMCA Indian Guides together and we had a couple fun outings. I was 'Little Red Fox' and he was 'Big Moose.' I think for any young boy, a father is a hero."

Though just 9 when his father died, Brian Kreimendahl remembers that day.

"All I can remember is that someone came and fetched me out of school," he said. "And when I got home, there was a lot of people in the house. I was told to go outside and play. It did not take long before I became to feel as if we -- my mother, brother and sisters -- were all now different. Not a bad different, but different. I wish I could have known my dad as a man, not just a father, but as a man so I could talk to him one on one."

Kreimendahl praised Ririe's attempt to recognize the top-secret workers who died for their roles in national security.

"Without Steve, these individuals would just vanish without a thought from the general public. He is trying to establish a lasting recognition of what these individuals paid for our freedom.

"You know, sometimes I have sat on top of a mountain and have thought how I could take this rock and throw it to the bottom. I could smash it into little bits if I wanted. But you know, in the end it will still be here and I will not," Kreimendahl said. "Therefore, it's just such a great idea to pay recognition to these 14 individuals with a monument."