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VETERANS CORNER
SONNY
Submitted by Ernie Brosh
A mothers letter to her son;
(Dear Sunshine, I fainted and then when dad took the phone and heard your
voice he couldnt speak because he was crying.)
We left Groom Lade (Area 51), Nevada in a C-124 destination Atsugi, Japan
with refueling stops in California, Hawaii and Wake Island. After eight
months of secrecy, I was permitted to tell my parents where I would be
stationed.
(We heard an Air Force aircraft was missing with one Philadelphian on
board. The name would not be released pending notification of next of kin)
Our cargo was a disassemlbed Top Secret U-2 reconnaissance plane. Two CIA
agents and I were on board as guards with only a minimal crew.
(Dad took off from work. We called Father McCabe to the house. We prayed.
We thought we would never see you again.)
Wake Island must have the shortest air strip in the world. The tiny
terminal was packed with 154 passengers and crew of a C-54 passenger
plane. We refueld and took off shortly after the C-54. After a few hours,
a crew memeber asked the CIA agents and I to look for signs of wreckage.
The C-54 was missing.
(They released the name of the Philadelphia. It was Sonny Vishey. You
might not remember him. You played together when you were only four or
five. He also joined the Air Force.)
Not a trace of the passengers or aircraft was ever found. In that tiny
terminal, on a speck of an island, unknown to each other, fate had brought
two childhood friends together for a moment in time. One would live, the
other would die.
(The Philadelphian on board the aircraft was your boyhood friend Sonny.
Thank God you are all right. Dad and I pray for your safe return. We also
pray for Sonny. Love, Mom) |
