Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Every weekend booktv offers programs focused on nonfiction authors and books. Watch more and watch any of the past programs online at booktv. Org. While in topeka we talked to dw carter about his book may day over wichita which details the worse military aviation disaster in kansas history. The house was shaking and i looked out the window and our house was on fire and i raced downstairs to get my sisters and brothers out put them across the street and came back. Actsi could not get here fast enough because everything was in the way. I started running and singing up and down the streets until i got here. The plane crash occurred january 16th 1965 and it occurred early in the morning around 9 30. The plane went down at 20th and pine street in wichita on the northeast end. It crash landed in a section of wichita that wastypic typically referred to as the africanamerican community. 97 of the africanamericans were living in that section of wichita. We are talking a 500 foot high fire ball engulfing the block. 14 homes destroyed, fire is everywhere, destruction is everywhere, and 30 lives are lost through the tragedy. I have not found anything saying this is why the story didnt get the attention it needed. But there was a lot going on in 1965 america specifically three wars. The war on vietnam, a massive amounts of troops are headed into vietnam under johnson. We had the war on poverty and the war for equality. And all of that is consumeing the decade. These were turbulant times. Everything in selma. And because of that i think this crash in and of itself didnt get the attention it needed because it happened in quote unquote small town usa, wichita kansas. I arrived at the air force base in 2003 never been to kansas and had no idea about the history. You can imagine me sitting there in this city taking in my surrounding and listening to the instructors there. They have a First Term Airman Center and during this time you learn about the history of the city. I did. I am hearing about the city and all of these things happening and there is a short blurb about this is where the worst nonnatural disaster in kansas history occurred. I said excuse me and asked a question and i didnt get the answer i wanted. I went to the library and didnt get the answer i wanted then. And i found there is no history there. I could not believe 30 lives were taken there was no memorial and this is and remains the worst nonnatural disaster and there is none on it. With the air force and deployments i didnt have time to dive into it. I became a Police Officer and was stationed right there. I got to know the people over the years and understand their hurts and tragedy and miscon misconceptions and myths there. This is an amazing story from the standpoint of the men in and of themselves, the seven men on the plane were never supposed to be in wichita. At the last minute they get word to head to wichita and take part in the operation lucky number arriving on a tuesday, january 12th. From that time they are not able to take off due to weather. They had terrible weather in kansas at the time. And finally on that friday captain smuck, the leader and commander of the crew asked for approval to take off on that saturday, january 16th. They were stationed in oklahoma at the air force base and wanted to get back home so they said go ahead, you have approval to do this mission. It was a unique refueling mission. The kc135 was supposed to go up and hook up a 352 bomber were the air force and they were going to refuel the bomber and head back to the sherman Airforce Base in oklahoma. On january 16th it is 11 degrees outside, the men arrive before 8 a. M. Prep and get ready to go and at 9 27 they depart and leave the run way with 31,000s of jet fuel. The pilot calls may day three minutes into the flight and they are never heard from again and that is where the story begins. On that january 16th morning with seven men fighting for their lives in a plane over wichita and a crowded neighborhood. These were rural conditions as far as the air forcement. The commander had ten years in the air force. Well seasoned pilots and that helped with looking at the rumors that came about and checking the Service Jacket for the captain and looking at how seasoned they were and they were excellent pilots but when disaster strikes skill doesnt matter. They had a matter of minutes at first and then seconds. It was impossible. When i arrived in the neighborhood and talked about the tragedy asking them what happened the myths was that it crash today kill africanamericans. You can understand how that can be stimulated over the years and come about but it was untrue. That rumor came about because a lot of the africanamericans in wichita, 97 , were living in this crumpled section. The rumor was it crashed on purpose and to kill africanamericans and that was made worse by the people coming into the community right after the tragedy. There was a complaint and that was once the investigators were done and the police withdrew from the community there was no one there to protect the victims. People came and souvenir hunters were everywhere and people spreading rumors saying they knew the pilot and why it occurred and that caused victims to be upset so the rumors started. It crashed because of many reasons and they were all terrible when you understand the event in the true facts that are there. Terrible also when you understand what the families were going through and to hear these types of things coming about. But that is what happens when there is no one there to clear up the misconception and look at the record and produce a history on it. That is something i didnt find while i was there and it prompted me to do something about it. The air force said our pilots didnt do anything wrong and were performing a routine training operation which was a refueling operation and they were right in that sense. The federal government had a difficult time responding to this event and i say that because there was a federal tort claims act that limited the amount of compenation victims could receive. There was a 5,000 cap and when you talk about the victims on the ground that is not a lot in conversation. The air force immediately setup payments for a thousands dollar relief payments in the community that had a command post at 21st and minnesota. This was for anyone in the community that could come in and sign paperwork and get some type of reprieve and payment for their immediate concerns. But as they do this they find that not very many people want to come and sign paperwork. They dont want to receive the thousands dollars. They recruit tim garland one of the only africanamericans recruited to help out. And they begin to see they dont trust the government. So the airforce had a hard time assisting people because of the mistrust and the federal government had a hard time because of the caps in place. It takes one man who went to law school and he help to lift the 5,000 ban in place. By that time most victims sought litigation through own attorneys Chester Lewis being one of them. And they looked for ways to receive compensation outside of the process. It was terrible and didnt help the victims and i think that added to the tragedy. In the end most of the victims received a few thousand for the loss of a loved one. The lowest payment for a loss of a child was 400 and loss of an adult was 700. The loss of Property Damage in many cases paid more than a loved one. It created a bitterness because they just didnt feel they received restitution. In many cases, and this was the same i found across the board i talked to and i will give you two examples. One was copilot getting a knock on the door and after that she realizes it is the air force. And she gets the heart breaking news her husband erishperished. She is giving a 1,000 by the colonel who is there saying this is for Current Affairs and get them in order but dont think about suing. Other than that she doesnt receive anything from the air force and aside from the benefits she would have gotten from her husband and that was that. On the other side we look at someone like irene huber who lost her brother. And she remembers specifically the Western Union telegram. They get one saying sorry for your loss danny was killed on the plane, and that was the last i heard. When i find them and they found me, i find they still didnt know why the plane crashed and had no idea about the misconceptions in place. But they didnt receive any compensation and they know the victims didnt receive any comensation. This continued to fester over the years. I never written a book before and i would like to say the community wrote this book. I started out with what was going to be an article about it. I got phone calls from across the country from people who lived in arizona, phoenix, and lived in washington, d. C. And boston and other areas and said i am someone who perished or knew someone who perished at the time and i want to tell you my story. What started as what was going to be an article turned into a book because of the stories that poured in. One of the challenges we have as historians is getting the primary source of material. If it wasnt there in the record, and this time it wasnt, how do you create the story . I was lucky that the community and folks who lived throughout the country contacted me and gave me their story and the air force gave me the accident report after the fouryear request. This was a report that was finally given me and i dont know what i was going to do with the report and i want to truth to be out. The family didnt know why it crashed. And there was a technical term calls unscheduled rutter deflection. The rutter and that is the largest controlled surface on the plane, moves right or left and that turns the nose of the plane. The was a malfunction of the rutter and a combination of that with the auto pilot malfunctioning jammed the rutter in one direction and the plane turns upside down and heads into the a nose dive. They recovered all of the engine and tested them at tinker Airforce Base and recovered the crumpled tail session and determined why the plane crash occurred. And in the report i was able to also find that this was talked about in the days prior to the crash between the pilot and between the other pilot on the b52 who said i see your rutter is sort of squirrely and moving back and forth. I am not telling it. They are communicating. It is eerie as you read the report because you know it led to this accident occurring. It is tough to answer for 1965. I made copies of the accident report and sent it to the families i had contact with saying this is what the air