Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
On this date ...
1970: Dwain Johnston of Tucumcari was named New Mexico State Police’s Officer of the Year. Johnston had been a state trooper since 1959 and stationed in Tucumcari since 1963. Born in Vernon, Texas, he moved to New Mexico at age 14 and became a firefighter at Carlsbad before joining the state police force. A father of three children, he recently retired as scoutmaster of Cub Pack 621.
• Three people were hospitalized in fair condition with head and internal injuries at Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari after the driver, an 18-year-old woman from Illinois, fell asleep at the wheel 3.9 miles west of San Jon on U.S. 66. The car went off the road and overturned three times, throwing them out of the vehicle. State police said the three might have suffered fewer injuries had they been wearing their seat belts.