ELWELL RONALD

Ronald "Ronnie" Elwell was a potential member who died during training before going to Vietnam on 01/22/1960 at the age of 32.0 from Mid-air
Tulsa, OK
Flight Class 60-4Q
Date of Birth 02/08/1928
Served in the U.S. Army
This information was provided by Ted Jambon was his next door neighbor in 60-4Q.

More detail on this person: Mid-air collision on final cross country flight.

I had to borrow a microfilm reader from Weatherford college, haul it to the MIneral Wells library, put a newspaper over my head to shade the light to make the film readable, but it worked.

The Mineral Wells Index Headline story on Sunday Jan 24, 1960 was the mid-air collision of two helicopters. "Killed in the crash were Capt Ronald S. Elwell, 31, of Tulasa, OK ... and 2nd Lt Jerry L. Burton, 23, of Inglefield, IN a 1958 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. The accident occurred 1:15 Friday [Jan 22 by my reckoning] 2.5 miles north of Camp Wolters on the Grady Seale Ranch."

The pilots had just taken off for a cross country flight to Abilene...NOTE that they were both solo. These were the 1st fatalities in the helicopter school which had graduated 3,000 students. Lt Eugene Fudge was the first to reach the crash site (a member according to the directory).

PHOTO CAPTION - "Death Trap - Capt Ronald S. Elwell, 31, a student at the United States Army Primary Helicopter School died in this trainging wreckage Friday afternoon after his helicopter was apparently in a mid air collision with another heliopter (U.S. Army Photo)"

From: Jim Messinger

This information was last updated 05/18/2016

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Date posted on this site: 04/13/2025