VIDEO: 70 years ago, a fiery plane crash on Mt. Beacon

TOWN OF FISHKILL When World War II naval hero Dixie Kiefer received the Distinguished Service Medal, Secretary of the Navy — and Beacon native — James V. Forrestal called Kiefer "the indestructible man."

There was no way for Forrestal to know that Kiefer's life — and those of five other Navy men — would end on a mountainside overlooking Forrestal's hometown, during a routine flight months after the war had ended.

The accident on Mount Beacon happened 70 years ago Wednesday, in rain and fog.

On Saturday, a group of volunteers will memorialize the event, as well as another crash on Mount Beacon 10 years earlier that killed two other servicemen. The ceremony will be held at 1 p.m. at the Town of Fishkill's War Memorial Plaza on Route 52, between the Town of Fishkill Police Department and the town recreation center.

"We had this legend who died right here with five other people," said David Rocco, 58, a Yorktown Heights resident and member of Friends of the Mt. Beacon Eight, the "eight" referring to the combined death toll from the 1945 and 1935 crashes. "They should be honored in some way because nobody knows what happened."

Kiefer had risen to fame after being wounded in devastating attacks on the USS Yorktown during the Battle of Midway in 1942 and the USS Ticonderoga by Japanese suicide planes early in 1945.

In all, he had survived 10 major wounds in two world wars, including being wounded in 65 places by shrapnel aboard the Ticonderoga. He had been featured as "Captain Dixie" in a Navy-produced film, "The Fighting Lady," which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1945.

Despite his standing, he was often portrayed as an every-man leader, easily approachable yet steadfastly in command.

On Jan. 21, 1945, the Ticonderoga, commanded by Kiefer, was attacked by five kamikaze pilots during an operation near Formosa, now Taiwan. Two of the planes reached their target.

The first plane and its bomb crashed into the carrier's flight deck, exploding in a ball of fire. Kiefer turned the ship, so the wind would not fan the flames, and flooded compartments on one side to induce a 10-degree list that dumped burning fuel overboard.

The second plane hit on the starboard side near the command island that rises above the flight deck. Shrapnel flew into the bridge, ripping through Kiefer's body and shattering one arm. Through it all, Kiefer remained in command on the bridge for 12 hours.

During the Battle of Midway, Kiefer, serving as the Yorktown's executive officer, survived the carrier's sinking on June 7, 1942. His hands were severely burned as he lowered an injured man to a life raft.

The pain was so great that when he tried lowering himself down a line, he could not support his own weight. Kiefer fell, striking the ship's armor belt on the way down and suffered a compound fracture of his foot and ankle.

In spite of the pain, he swam alongside a life raft and pushed it toward a rescuing destroyer before becoming so exhausted he had to be pulled from the water.

It's no wonder, then, that Secretary Forrestal — who was born and raised in Beacon, and once served as city editor of the Poughkeepsie News Press, a predecessor of the Poughkeepsie Journal — had given Kiefer his "indestructible" nickname.

The crash

Indeed, Kiefer's arm was still in a cast when he and five other men boarded a twin-engine transport plane on Nov. 11, 1945 for Quonset Naval Base in Rhode Island. He had recently been promoted to commodore, a rank falling above captain and below rear admiral, and was serving as commander of the First Naval District's air bases.

At the time, Nov. 11 marked Armistice Day, the official end of World War I. The first Veterans Day observance for all veterans would not come for two more years.

According to news reports, Kiefer had taken in a college football game at Yankee Stadium between Army and Notre Dame the day before. The two teams were ranked first and second in the national polls, and Army — led by the one-two punch of Felix "Doc" Blanchard and Glenn Davis — had won, 48-0.

Kiefer, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, must have left the stadium in good spirits, knowing that Army's win had set up a national championship showdown with undefeated Navy in what would be billed as the "game of the century." That night, he dined with a friend.

Fog and swirling rain shrouded the area the next day. The transport carrying the six men left New Jersey at 11:33 a.m. The flight would last less than 30 minutes.

As the plane flew over Stewart Airfield in Newburgh, it radioed for directions and weather conditions, according to news reports.

Beacon residents reported they heard the plane motoring low over the city, the Poughkeepsie New Yorker reported. Then, an explosion.

So thick were the rain and fog, smoke and flames from the impact were masked from view. It took searchers 15 hours to find the wreckage, and only after lingering fires finally set off scattered flares that illuminated the night fog.

The gruesome scene was discovered at 3 a.m. on Nov. 12 by three volunteers from Beacon, their flashlights sweeping across the dense woods.

One of the searchers was Charles Wood, an employee at the former Texaco Research Center in Glenham.

"I remember my father saying he was in the mountains and he saw what they thought was a red flag," said Gary Wood, a 56-year-old Beacon resident.

When the searchers got closer, their flashlights revealed it was something else — a bloody body part.

At dawn, a Poughkeepsie New Yorker reporter and photographer ascended to the scene. The plane had sheared off treetops and scorched the ground. Some bodies were still in the burned fuselage. Others were found several hundred feet away. All had been scorched.

Kiefer's body was identified by papers he was carrying, and by the cast on his right arm. He was 49. Born in Blackfoot, Idaho, he had graduated from high school in Lincoln, Nebraska and was appointed to the Naval Academy in 1915. A bachelor, he had no children.

The five other victims were identified as:

Lt. Cmdr. Dr. Ignatius Zielinski, 45, of Salem, Massachusetts. Zielinski was assistant medical officer at Quonset and a medical examiner in Salem County prior to entering the service.

Lt. Lloyd P. Heinzen, 23, of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Heinzen was the senior pilot of the plane. During eight months of combat in the Pacific, he shot down eight Japanese planes, earning the title of "ace."

Lt. Hans K. Kohler, 25, of Garfield, New Jersey, the plane's co-pilot.

Clarence Hooper, 23, an aviation machinist's mate third-class from Greensboro, North Carolina.

David O. Wood, 23, a seaman first-class from North Franklin, Connecticut.

All were stationed at Quonset.

Honoring the dead

The Friends of the Mt. Beacon Eight members say one of their motivations is to draw attention to the other men who died that day, as well as two servicemen who died in a plane crash on Mount Beacon on Sept. 14, 1935.

The memorial ceremony on Saturday, at the Fishkill war memorial plaza, will have a clear line of sight to the 1945 crash site.

William Stolfi, a 57-year-old Hopewell Junction resident and dentist at Downstate Correctional Facility, climbed to the site on Veterans Day in 2009 with a handful of other corrections personnel.

"My interest was to track down the others and put the names up there," he said.

So the group affixed a plaque with the names of each victim. Rev. Alfred Twyman Jr., a Downstate chaplain, led a prayer service.

No doubt, the attention to each man would have pleased Kiefer. On April 21, 1945, just months before his death, Kiefer appeared at a press function at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan.

Still recovering from his wounds suffered on the Ticonderoga, Kiefer deflected the attention his heroics had received.

The real heroes, he said, were the servicemen who had not gone to the Naval Academy and benefited from "30 years of steady employment with good pay."

The heroes, he said, were the reserves and the greenhorn sailors. Kiefer, noting a directive from Forrestal, placed special emphasis on the service of African-American mess workers and stewards.

"There is nothing heroic about us 'regulars,'" he said. "We weren't giving up homes, good jobs (and) pleasant shores to go to sea."

John Ferro: 845-437-4816; jferro@poughkeepsiejournal.com; Twitter: @PoJoEnviro

At a glance

Mount Beacon plane crashes ceremony

When: Nov. 14, 1 p.m.

Where: Town of Fishkill's War Memorial Plaza on Route 52 between the Town of Fishkil Police Department (801 Route 52) and the Town of Fishkill Recreation Center (793 Route 52).

For information: Email coyoteroc@verizon.net or call 914-819-8792