A Perilous Flight Yale students discover debris in Great Mountain Forest

By Jody Bronson

The memorial, (with honor guard in 2003), to pilot Lt. Daniel Thorson of Montana, in Great Mountain Forest.

On March 31, 1943 a P-40 military fighter plane left Mitchel Field on Long Island (now the Nassau Coliseum) at 3:30 p.m. en route to Bradley Field in Connecticut. The pilot, Daniel Thorson, was a young lieutenant from Great Falls, Montana. The weather, according to Great Mountain Forest (GMF) weather records, was 33 degrees F and sleeting. The plane did not land at Bradley after its expected half hour flight and a military search began at approximately 7 p.m. that same evening. The search, in the area of Long Island Sound, lasted for approximately one week before the Army gave up its efforts. The previous month, Professor Walter Meyer of Yale had written a letter to Arthur Hart, then forest manager at GMF, expressing an interest in bringing some forestry students to the Yale Camp in April to begin an inventory of Great Mountain Forest. The camp was open only in the summer months and not intended for classes during the changing spring weather. At that time, Ted Childs was serving in the U.S. Army as an officer and not living in New England. Hart, a meticulous record keeper and trusted employee, was in constant correspondence with Childs during his absence. Hart responded to Meyer, stating that due to a recent ice storm, the camp was not accessible but the students could stay at housing near the Childs estate. Before Meyer and his group arrived in April, Hart resigned his position at GMF and as part of the war effort, took a job as Senior Forester at the Rubber Development Corp in Brazil. He left the country for his new job on March 25. On Saturday, April 24, teams of students from Meyer’s class were running parallel west-east compass lines 1,320 ft (20 chains) apart. Two students, Fredrick Turner and William Holmes, ran their lines near Blackberry Hill, approximately 750 feet east of the Norfolk, Falls Village town line. Turner, while following his pre-determined compass bearing, came upon pieces of metal debris on the ground. William Holmes was within sight of Turner and quickly ran to an area of open hardwoods to help investigate. The wreck of a P-40 military airplane was found. It apparently had crashed into the side of the mountain. The two men began a search of the area and 350 feet from the mangled fuselage, they located the remains of the pilot, still strapped into the aircraft’s seat. Stunned by their discovery, Turner and Holmes removed the pilot’s wallet and brought it to Norfolk police officer, Alton Smith. The Army was immediately contacted and a group of military personnel was deployed. Holmes led the group back to the scene of the crash and the pilot’s body was removed. The next day, Easter Sunday, the Army returned to the site and began to remove all of the wreckage. Lt. Thorson’s family was notified that his body had been found on a remote mountainside in Connecticut and was sent by train to his home. Funeral services were held for him in Great Falls, Montana. Over 60 years passed before Lt. Daniel Thorson’s sister, Donna Wahlberg, learned of the exact location of the fatal crash site, through the efforts of GMF foresters Jody Bronson and Russell Russ. She arrived from her home in Montana to climb the mountain that had taken the life of her older brother. During her visit she was presented with the military honors Lt. Daniel Thorson had never received. After all the years that had gone by, she was finally able to bring the memories of her brother to a peaceful closure. Today, the crash site can hardly be noticed. Treetops that were broken off now show only slight signs of being hit by an aircraft traveling at 200 miles per hour. The forest floor is thick with decayed leaves that cover the scars of the plane as it scraped to a halt against the bedrock. The passage of time has left only faint memories of a pilot that died alone on a mountain in Norfolk.