Widow finally visits site of pilot husband’s death

PAHRUMP -- The 25-year-old mother was giving her twin babies a bath when the Navy officers and chaplain knocked on her door.

Her husband, Lt. William B. DeGroff, had been killed June 14, 1971, when his jet slammed into Vanderbilt Peak, 200 miles northwest of Las Vegas, they told her.

His A-7 Corsair II had exploded. There was nothing left. No crash site. No remains to speak of.

Navy officials wouldn't even let her open the casket before they buried him with full military honors in an Iowa cemetery.

With the Vietnam War raging, they keep a lid on any other details involving the 25-year-old pilot's crash.

On Saturday morning, almost 40 years later, Kathi Foster finally laid eyes on what she calls her pilot husband's true resting place -- a debris field that stretches across a portion of mountainside near the tiny mining community of Silver Peak.

"It's beautiful," she said. "I don't think I've ever been to anywhere that is quite so beautiful and so peaceful. I mean it's just, it's almost indescribable how gorgeous it is."

Hikers found DeGroff's dog tag amid the wreckage 20 years ago but it wasn't returned to the family until last month. Nye County public servants finally orchestrated its delivery to one of the twins, Christopher DeGroff, a Chicago lawyer.

Foster finally closed the loop last week when she and her husband, Dean, made the 30-hour trip from Fort Bend, Ind., to Tonopah.

They meet the key people involved in returning the family keepsake -- Lee Guthridge, a Nye County court clerk, and Allen Metscher, a Goldfield historian. Metscher and his brother had found the dog tag while hiking on the mountain, and it hung in Allen's office for years until Guthridge tracked down the DeGroff family.

Escorting Foster to the wreckage last week was almost overwhelming, Metscher said.

"It was evident that Kathi was a bit emotional," he said. "In fact, I believe we all were feeling the sadness."

Although the one big answer finally came, many new questions arose on Foster's visit.

She's still not sure exactly went wrong that day in the skies over Silver Peak. The Navy said her husband, who was stationed at Lemoore Naval Air Station in California, was doing instrument training with his cockpit blacked out.

"The Navy certainly is extremely brief in what they tell you, and the very small accident report that I got was just very minimal, so you know there's always been lots and lots of questions," she said. "Just talking with all of these people, I've gotten a lot of different stories, so some of it has made even more questions."

For instance, she was told by officials that her husband's instructor was flying right behind him, but many locals said the plane was all by itself when it went down.

"It's still just all a big puzzle," she said.

Foster said the twins also will make the trek to Silver Peak. Christopher plans to come in July, and his sister, Sarah Pinter, will follow later.

Metscher and Guthridge's efforts to return the dog tag, Foster said, have forever altered the lives of her grandchildren, who range in age from 3 to 13 years.

"I showed several people pictures of the grandchildren," she said. "You know, we were told there was absolutely nothing out here, and just for the story to start being put together like this, this is going to make a difference to these seven children for the rest of their lives."

The Tonopah Chapter of the Elks has donated a stone marker, which be placed near the base of the mountain. Metscher is assembling a display at the Central Nevada Museum in Tonopah and a memorial plaque in DeGroff's honor.

And Foster laid her own cross on the mountain before she left.