Tail number 68-290 Crashed and destroyed 23 December 1975, in the area of the Ashland forest in Maine, about 45 mins after takeoff. Pilot Capt Pavelco? (Ron VanDerWarker) (Additional info from Jim Gramstad, the ACC for -290's last mission.) It was several miles off the logging roads. I got the honor among others to secure the aforementioned crash site..We set up camp along side a logging road.Unfortunately we never saw the crash site..A large snowmobile designed to carry several people was dispatched to the site..However it failed to start up and we were confined to a large tent in the middle of the Allagash in late December..It was cold.Remember a CE enlisted guy pulling a pint of Whiskey out of his parka and handing it to the base commander..I thought the Base Commander was going to plow his ass but instead.........he took a drink..then handed the bottle to me..I took a drink and passed it around.Hey it was cold..Remember another incident where we were all sitting in a vehicle trying to keep warm along with a young officer.I remember an A1C in the front seat from New York City,Paul a fellow cop but just happen to have a connection to the base commander because he was dating his daughter, I beleive, was having a conversation with the officer..Paul started going off about how he`d have to shoot anybody who entered the secure area...The officer not understanding Paul`s NYC sense of humor was telling him "no you don`t shoot anybody".Then Paul said "Oh yea I will, then I`ll shoot you for defending him," well needless to say..the young officer stormed out of the vehicle moments later the base commander entered the vehicle and talked to Paul..He was saying "Paul, you have to watch what you say to certain people"..Paul didn`t seem to understand what he did wrong..all the time I could barely hold back my laughter......... We had wood burning fireplaces in the tents.but they didn`t help much..Most of us got along OK.However we had a problem with a" power all of a sudden went to his head Buck Sargeant"..making an already unpleasant situation worse..WE came very close to having a Mutiny that 1st night.Our mission failed..The picture of the aircraft appeared in the Bangor Daily News the next morning..I also had the honor later of guarding the crash pieces that the FAA was assembing and piecing back together in a Hanger..It was an interesting experience. Can`t remember what the cause of the crash was..but the pilots did survive..thanks to an ejection module that was unique to the F-111 at that time The story as remembered being told was that there were two 111's on a bombing run over the electronic gunnery range down by the Ashland forest. The plane that went down lost hydraulics on one side and He said, "I'm going to punch," the wingman said "go" and the tower said "no" and he was gone. That was the story told at the Rendezvous outside the east gate, by the Air traffic control folks.
