Silent Witnesses

Last night we disconnected the Jeep and drove out to see a statue of the "Silent Witnesses".

Information gathered from plaques at the site:

On December 11, 1985, a flight carrying 248 US Army forces primarily from the 101st Airborne Division who had been serving as peacekeepers in the Sinai Desert were on a from Cairo, Egypt back to their base in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. When the flight departed Gander, Newfoundland after refueling and servicing, it gained little altitude and crashed approximately 3000ft beyond the end of the runway. There were no survivors among the 248 passengers and 8 crew. It remains as the worst disaster ever on Canadian soil.

The Silent Witnesses was dedicated in June, 1990. The memorial depicts an unarmed American Soldier standing atop a rock holding the hands of two civilian children. The children, a boy and a girl, each hold an olive branch, indicative of the peace keeping mission of the 101st Airborne Division "Screaming Eagles" on the Sinai Peninsula. As the trio stands looking into future, they are surrounded by the trees, hills, and rocks of the aircraft crash site, overlooking Gander Lake in the direction of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. These natural surroundings are the "Silent Witnesses" of the precise moment when 256 dreams ended and the hearts and imaginations of an entire world were captured.

Memorial Statue

View of Gander Lake from the memorial

Just down the hill from the memorial is the "Cross of Sacrifice". It bears the inscription "Rendezvous with Destiny" which is the motto of the 101st Airborne Division - the inscription was crafted from the remains of the emergency exit door of the ill-fated DC-8.

 We went down to Gander Lake from the memorial and were amazed at the beautiful peaceful location and that we were seemingly the only people enjoying the whole lake.

Gander Lake looking east

Gander Lake looking west

On the way back to the bus, we stopped at the A&W Root Beer spot across the street from the North Atlantic Aviation Museum for Dwayne to get a root beer float. He said that they were stingy in the amount of ice cream they gave in the float though....