By Dave Dyer

Staff Writer

It was a moment much too late in coming.

Family members and survivors of one of the worst disasters in South Portland history gathered for a memorial off Westbrook Street last Saturday, commemorating a plane crash that took place 65 years ago.

On July 11, 1944, an A-26 “Invader” bomber crashed into a trailer park at Long Creek, what is now the Red Bank neighborhood. The crash killed 19 people, including Phillip “Phee” Russell, who was piloting the aircraft.

Walter Gurney, who was 3 years old at the time of the crash, said he was looking for his mother.

“I can remember I was outside the trailer door, hollering for mother, I had heard the plane crash,” Gurney said. “The next thing I know, I was waking up in somebody’s arms. Momma said a piece of the wing hit me on the head.”

Walter’s sister, Karen Allen, was too young to know about the crash and didn’t know about the event until 1970.

“My mom passed away in 1970 and that’s when I found out about it,” Allen said. “I have the original paper from 1944. It’s yellow and falling apart, but I have the original.”

The ceremony began with the reading of proclamations written by Gov. John Baldacci and U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, who were both unable to attend the ceremony. 

The proclamations were followed by a few words from South Portland City Councilor Maxine Beecher and Mayor Tom Blake. Beecher said she has heard stories of the crash since she first moved to South Portland. 

“This is a moment much too late in coming,” Beecher said. “I came here in 1961 and had a lot of older friends who saw this tragedy. All these years I knew we should do something.”

South Portland Historical Society Director Kathy DiPhillipo said many residents in trailers where the plane crashed were families of shipyard employees who worked in Portland during World War II, and many of the victims were wives and children of shipyard workers.

Throughout the speeches, planes would fly overhead, at some points drowning out voices of the speakers.

John Kierstead, chairman of the Long Creek Air Tragedy Memorial Committee, said he first became involved with putting together a memorial after hearing about the crash from South Portland firefighters Phil Viola and Dave Rodrigue.

“I was doing Winston Churchill at the Portland Air Show, and they came up to me and said ‘It’s the 65th anniversary, are you going to do anything?” That was June 8 and I said we better start,” Kierstead said. “They were the hunters and I was the gun dog.”

Following speeches, family members of the victims each took a turn ringing a memorial bell one time for each person who died. The ceremony concluded with the laying of a wreath next to the bell, while a piper played the song “Amazing Grace.”

Also present at the ceremony was the Thornton Heights Fire Company Antique Engine Number Six, which was the first truck on scene at the time of the crash.

Kierstead said the memorial is a need for South Portland residents.

“There had to be some sort of a memorial for these people,” Kierstead said. “There’s never even been a memorial service for them. Well that stops today, because from now on every year, there’s going to be a memorial. There’s going to be some sort of remembrance for July 11, 1944.”

Kierstead said the next step is to install the granite monument at the site. He said stone for the monument has already been donated, and the committee has raised $1,500. He said the challenge will be raising the money for the artwork – resembling the outlines of a pilot holding the hands of two small children – to be engraved in the stone. 

Kierstead said the other side of the memorial will have a plate with the names of the 19 victims. He said the committee is still about $10,000 short of their goal.

Among the victim’s family members was Peggy Etter, half-sister to Phillip “Phee” Russell, the pilot of the plane. Russell was in his early 20s at the time of the crash.

“[The crash] was a complete surprise,” said Etter, who was 16 years old at the time of the accident. “He used to come and live with us in Gardiner, Maine, in the summertime. That’s when I became close to him.”

Etter said she enjoyed the ceremony.

“It was very nice and very well done,” she said. “It was very sentimental, but not too much to make you cry.”

Gurney said he thought the tragedy was a forgotten memory.

“I didn’t think anybody would remember it but us,” he said. “It seems like everyone else took it as history.”

Staff writer Dave Dyer can be reached at 282-4337 ext. 219