On Wednesday, July 14, 1943, an Army-Air Force Lockheed AT-18A carrying a crew of six broke apart in midair while flying from Mather Field in Sacramento, California, to Peterson Field in Colorado Springs, Colorado, killing everyone aboard and scattering wreckage across the Middle Desert. Seventeen planes left Mather Field that day to search for the missing aircraft and crew, and thirteen more joined the effort the next day, while the Army-Air Force, Civil Air Patrol, and civilian authorities conducted an intensive ground and air search that failed, leading to its abandonment on Sunday, July 25, 1943. In October 1943, while driving cattle from Sheep Valley to Hanksville, Lavor Brown, Alonzo "Lon" Brown, and Heber Rees discovered a towel on a bush, then an Army coat, cap, and wallet belonging to Charles F. Royse, and soon afterward found airplane wreckage and the dead crew near Salt Wash. Leaving Lon and Heber with the cattle, Lavor Brown rode back to the Jeffery Ranch, contacted Salt Lake Army-Air Base by phone, and arrangements were made to recover the men and wreckage. The Army-Air Force then called for volunteers, and local men including Lavor Brown, Grant Brown, Les Morrell, Alton Morrell, Cliff Morrell, William Taylor, David Taylor, Ivan Ernstsen, Barney Jeffrey, Frank Barney, and Andrew Hunt guided Major Leroy Gray Heston, Captain Robert Thayer, Captain Manes, and other Army-Air Force personnel into the roadless desert with horses, an Army jeep, staff cars, and trucks. The recovery party left Loa on Monday, November 1, 1943, spent its first night at the Jeffery Ranch, reached the crash site on Tuesday, November 2, and found the scattered remains of the crew after a difficult journey through sand, washes, and cliffs. While examining the site ahead of the convoy, Major Heston found the body of the pilot, Major Paul E. Spence, a close friend with whom he had trained. The crew of the AT-18A was recovered, and the party returned to Loa on Thursday, November 4, 1943. An investigation concluded that the aircraft's structure had failed under extreme pressure caused by two storms in the area, and the wreckage had been strewn over more than a mile of desert. The lost crew members were Major Paul E. Spence, Staff Sergeant Allen C. Hebert, 1st Lieutenant Leonard A. Keyes Jr., Sergeant Charles F. Royse, 2nd Lieutenant Orion L. Mock, and Captain Robert D. Spitzer.