Hello everybody. I come here not because I personally suffer from PSTD, but I believe that the entire town in which I reside suffers from it, and I really want to hear some outside opinions on this matter. Please bare with me, this is a complex situation and story.



My wife and I live in the small town of Derry, Pennsylvania. Neither my wife nor I grew up here, however my father and most of his family did. I grew up in a town about 30 miles away from Derry, but I had fond memories of this town from visiting my grandparents (who are now deceased) as a child. This was part of the reason as to why my wife and I settled here. The other part was the fact that property is very affordable here.



As a teenager I had many friends in Derry, and I even attended high school for several years here (I lived with my grandparents who reside within Derry school district for those years). During my time at Derry high school, I heard several people tell varying stories about some sort of aviation disaster "a long time ago" that involved a helicopter. I became curious and started asking questions, but got very few answers. I finally shrugged it off as an urban legend and left it at that.



A few years passed and I was finished with school and had started my own business. One of my customers near Pittsburgh commented about the helicopter incident when he realized I had family ties to Derry. I asked him about it, and all he said was "there was a fair and a helicopter crashed and killed a bunch of people." Once again my curiosity spiked and I started asking questions, only this time I asked my parents too. They sort of down-played it and said a helicopter crash did happen, but it only killed a couple of people and it was a "long time ago".



Fast foreward to about 8 months ago, at which point my wife and I have been living in this town for about two years. By now we are kicking ourselves for living here. The people are strange. They display a pathology that I have never expierenced anywhere else I have been. There just seems like there's a gloom hovering over this town like a thick blanket of toxic smoke. People are just very anti-social and quick to over-react to almost any stressful stimuli. The majority of the youth are ruining their lives by snorting heroin and nobody seems to care (just google "derry" "westmoreland county" "heroin"). I start to wonder what happened to screw this town up so badly. I guess I wasn't really paying enough attention when I hung out here and attended school briefly as a teenager, because apparantly (from what I've heard) this town has been "screwed up" for quite a while.



Late one night I decided to use the internet to see if I could dig up any info on this mysterious helicopter incident that I had heard so many whispers about. I came up with nothing, which I though was very strange. Finally I broke down and paid $20 for a membership to a site which chronicles newspaper archives. I searched for hours and found nothing. Then finally I found it. Here's the real story...It will send chills down your spine:



The article stated that on September 5th, 1978 (Labor Day) a helicopter crashed into a crowd during a fair in the parking lot of St. Joseph's Catholic church. Around 800 people (over half the population of Derry at the time) were present in the maybe 10,000 square foot parking lot. The helicopter was dropping numbered ping pong balls for some sort of raffle. Apparantly this was also done at the fair in previous years and had become somewhat of a tradition. The helicopter stalled and the rotor got snagged on a thick electrical line. The powerline spun into the crowd, subsequently killing 11 people instantly in a very grotesque manner. Without going into graphic detail, basically the powerline tangled with the rotor of the helicopter acted like a giant, maneating weed eater. 11 deaths occured instantly and several other people died later. This event happened in front of children, teenagers, and many other people who surely will be affected mentally for the rest of their lives. Soilders prepare for the carnage they will encounter in war, yet still are never truly ready for it, and subsequently suffer from PTSD. Imagine the mental impact on over half the town after witnessing this type of horror.



A close friend who is a psychologist told me that he offered his services the following monday at the school, but was turned away and told "we're ok, we don't need any help. It's over and we just want to forget about it." Nearly 30 years after this horrible tradgedy, there still isn't (and will never be IMO) any type of monument or plaque erected in or near the parking lot where this event occured. I find that disgusting, considering the fact that it happened in the parking lot of a CHURCH!



This town bottled up all that horror that day. I have a feeling that most of the people in Derry are permanantly screwed up because of what they saw that day. I also feel that it even affects the current youth in the town, who are being raised by parents who are whacked out and refused help (or were refused help by the school).



My dad said that after that, this town just went downhill. I would just like some insight from some neuteral sources here. Can an entire town be affected by PTSD? Can the pathology that was born that horrible day still be affecting people who weren't even there..or even born yet for that matter?



Thanks for taking the time to read this. I look foreward to your responses.