Honoring the military

"Honoring Military History" at the Tucumcari Historical Museum was billed as a look back at Quay County and New Mexico's role in the U.S. military, but nearby Cannon Air Force Base loomed large during Saturday's activities.

An honor guard from the base near Clovis began the day by presenting the United States and New Mexico flags. Immediately afterward, Mayor Ruth Ann Litchfield read a City of Tucumcari proclamation that praised Cannon personnel for their efforts last month to repaint the F-100 Super Sabre fighter jet on the museum grounds and declared Saturday as Cannon Air Force Base Appreciation Day.

One of the attendees was Bill Lynn of Logan, who worked on F-100 fighter planes from 1958 to 1963 as a jet engine technician, including at Cannon. He's positive he did repairs on the jet parked in Tucumcari.

"I know damned well I worked on it because I worked on all of 'em," he said of F-100s.

"It was the top thing going," he said of those jets. "The F-100 was the first fighter aircraft to break the sound barrier. When it did, it cracked the gearbox on the nose. They modified it after that."

Lynn told several hair-raising stories of fatal accidents and crash landings at the base. He said Cannon pilots once flew jets between grain elevators west of Clovis in a space so narrow, they had to go sideways. The elevators' owners complained to Cannon commanders and installed a cable between the structures to dissuade any more such stunts from local flyboys. However, a pilot from the Arkansas National Guard didn't know about the cable and crashed after hitting it, killing him.

Gregg Sappington, a local Marine veteran who worked on bomber ordnance during the 1970s, presented a history of the F-100 jet that first was produced in 1953 and became a key bomber during the Vietnam War. He said only 17 F-100As, like the one in Tucumcari, still exist on display in the U.S.

After some use by the New Mexico Air National Guard, the jet that sits at the Tucumcari museum was retired in 1966 and flown to Tucumcari Municipal Airport in 1969, where it eventually was displayed at Veterans Park at Main and Third streets. Because of vandalism, the jet was moved to the museum in 1980, and Jackson Glass repaired the canopy in 2015 with donations from Altrusa International.

Sappington showed photos of the gleaming jet when it touched down in Tucumcari.

"I'm hoping we can get it back to looking like it did when it arrived," he said.

Maj. Mario Chaparro presented a history of the New Mexico National Guard, which conquistador Francisco Vazquez de Coronado began as a militia in the 1540s, predating the U.S. Army by a couple of centuries. It remains the oldest continuous citizen-based militia in the country.

Chaparro said the now-infamous Bataan Death March after U.S. forces surrendered to Japanese troops in 1942 adversely affected New Mexico Guardsmen due to its "unspeakable atrocities." More than 800 New Mexicans died from battle, torture or mistreatment in prisoner camps.

"They weren't treated like humans, but like animals, or even worse," he said.

Tucumcari Police Chief David Lathrom showed a half-dozen of his collection of handguns and rifles used by U.S. soldiers from the early 1860s to the early 1940s.

Lucy Nials said she was glad the museum organized an event that appreciates the area's veterans.

"It's good they're doing this," she said. "A lot of the veterans are going to be gone in a few years. They've given so we can have things like this."

Lynn, however, dismissed any suggestion he was a hero because of his military service.

"Nope, nope," he said. "We did some stupid stuff. We're not heroes."

About 90 people had passed through the museum's gates shortly before noon Saturday. Three of the four special events to mark the museum's 50th anniversary this year saw meager turnout, and two of those could be attributed to bad weather - bone-chilling cold in April and 105-degree heat last month.

Joy Young, one of the museum's board of directors, attributed the low turnout Saturday to conflicting events - a cerebral palsy benefit golf tournament by the Elks Club, a microchipping event by Paws and Claws Animal Rescue of Quay County and the popular Tucumcari Farmers Market.

"And people say there's nothing to do in Tucumcari," Young said.