By the beginning of 1941, it was evident that the United States would become involved in the battle against the Axis in World War II.

In preparation, about 1.2 million were drafted for a year’s service and another 800,000 reservists were called to active duty.

Here in Florida, Army Air bases and airfields were being built at a rapid rate.

By 1942, with several bay area airfields operational, the skies over Pasco County were filled with hundreds, if not thousands, of U.S. Military aircraft conducting special war effort training exercises.

And, often times these routine training exercises turned tragic as the massive war birds came crashing to the ground. And where they landed was anyone’s guess.

Training Mishap Over Pasco Turns Tragic

It was around noon on May 30, 1945. A squadron of 16, P-51 Mustangs from the Bartow Airfield was busy in the skies over Pasco County in a simulated attack on 18 A-26 medium sized bombers that had flown down from the Marianna Airfield in North Florida.

According to research by Bob Widner, who has studied more than 1,000 WWII crash site in Florida, during this routine training exercise, two P-51 Mustangs made contact during a mid-air collision at about 9,000 feet.

A 35-page investigation report by the Army Air Forces reveals that a young but experienced pilot, with 135-hours in the cockpit, somehow came up from below, striking the other plane with a glancing blow to its left wing.

The pilots involved were identified by the Tampa Tribune as Flight Officer John Terry of Lakeland, Florida and Second Lt. Robert Walker of Great Falls, Montana.

As the wing of the one plane buckled they both began their fast descent to earth, finally crashing about five miles southwest of San Antonio.

According to Widner, after attempting a low altitude bailout in which the parachute didn’t open, Walker and his plane slammed into the ground near today’s I-75 and State Road 52, basically disintegrating on impact.

However, reports indicate there were no apparent bailout attempts made by Flight Officer John Terry before his plane came down in a swampy area just south of Bellamy Brothers Road — perhaps knocked unconscious during the initial impact.

As the recovery team finally made their way to the scene of the Terry crash site, they found a 15-foot impact crater and pieces of the plane scattered in every direction.

They waded through swamp and 2-feet of water to the heap of twisted metal where they eventually removed parts of the wings and tail pieces for identification purposes.

But, the remaining pieces of Terry’s P-51 were left scattered about the landscape, untouched.

It wasn’t long before the horrific accident became the talk of the town in San Antonio and St. Leo.

San Antonio resident Eddie Herrmann, who was 9 years old at the time, remembers hearing about it at the local filling station.

Before he knew it someone offered to give him a ride out to what we now know was the Walker crash site — the more accessible of the two.

Arriving before investigators, Herrmann said, “There were at least 100 or more on-lookers already at the scene when we arrived. They were there collecting pieces of the wreckage.”

Amidst the scene, Herrmann also recalled the apparent remains of Second Lt. Robert Walker strewn about the site and more vividly remembers a limb hanging from a pine tree.

But, it wasn’t long before Army Air Force investigators arrived to the scene and quickly went to work cleaning and removing debris from the crash site.

However, they soon learned that some on-lookers had removed pieces of the wreckage as souvenirs.

According to Widner, a recovery team of U.S. soldiers went door to door making a simple offer, turn the pieces over or go to jail.

The Terry Site, 50-Years Later

Fifty years after the military training mishap over Pasco County, it would seem that the story of Robert Walker and John Terry’s fateful day had been forgotten, until the efforts of one man brought their tragic story into the 21^st century—St. Petersburg resident Bob Widner.

Widner, who grew up in Jacksonville, was only 9-years-old in 1942. But he remembers the day when a Navy training plane from the Jacksonville Naval Air Station crash landed into a house in his neighborhood.

Widner watched both the house and the plane burn to cinders — the pilot still strapped into the cockpit.

In 1995, Widner reflected on that horrific scene that he had witnessed during his childhood and thought that he’d like to know more about what happened.

So, he began the tedious process of scouring over old microfilmed newspaper in an attempt to gather more information in hopes that he could someday obtain an official copy of the accident report from the Navy.

His search through the St. Petersburg Times and Miami Herald led him on a journalistic view of all 1,440 days that our nation was engaged in the war.

Widner says, “In the Herald, I happened to read a short notice of a mid-air collision near San Antonio where one plane crashed in a swamp a few miles west. I figured that the plane would still be there and maybe I could find it.”

After two years of research, scouring the Pasco County countryside for eyewitnesses who might still live in the area, and an offer of $50 to anyone who could enable his recovery team to find the crash site, Widner’s efforts finally paid off.

With permission from the property owners and with assistance from five other team members, the John Terry crash site was rediscovered after 52 years.

“I found it! I found it!” echoed 13-year-old Jordan Schrader’s voice, the youngest member of the search team.

Following Jordan’s voice, Widner headed for a clearing and soon realized he was walking into the impact crater made by John Terry’s P-51 Mustang, no longer submerged under water.

In the center still laid the mangled landing gear strut with part of the wing still attached.

As Widner panned around to take in the crash site for the first time, he noticed pieces of wings and fuselage still strewn all around the crater.

At that moment he realized the tremendous force that it took to rip the Mustang apart upon impact.

Widner and his team quickly went to work surveying the crash site which revealed a defined direction of flight and the angle of impact of the war bird.

They noted that coming from the east the impact must have been at near vertical position.

Evidence showed pieces of the plane scattered 300 feet west of the site and about 100 feet to the east.

After removing a partial piece of the engine and other pieces of the wreckage, they shipped them north to an aviation museum in Tennessee.

But, from there the consensus was to leave what remains and let the swamp consume it.

However, Widner and his team’s efforts to preserve the memory of Flight Officer John Terry didn’t stop there.

After finding pieces of the cockpit buried under several feet of the swamp, Widner and his team surmised that the removal of Terry’s body from the site would have been near impossible, although military reports indicate otherwise.

After contact with Terry’s family, it was decided that a granite memorial was an appropriate action to honor the sacrifices made that fateful day in 1945.

And, ever since placing that memorial, Widner has been constantly reminded that Pasco County's development is creeping closer and closer to the site, which is only one of more than a 1,000 crash sites in the state.

In Florida alone, Widner has documented more than 1,000 major accidents and more than 2,000 fatalities.

“For every major accident there were 10 minor but reportable accidents. In our neck of the woods there was a saying that aptly described air training: 'One a day in Tampa Bay,'” Widner adds.

Today, through correspondence with the land manager, Widner still keeps a close watch on the site, which is intermittently under water depending on the seasons.

According to Warbird Crash by Anthony J. Mireles, WWII training in the United States resulted in more than “6,350 fatal accidents resulting in the loss of 7,114 aircraft and the deaths of over 15, 530 pilots, crew members and persons on the ground."