In the early evening of September 26, 1949, many residents near Talihina heard a plane in trouble and saw a large Air Force B-29 bomber circle overhead before entering a flat spin and falling from the sky. It crashed and burned in a wooded area six miles southwest of town, killing all thirteen airmen on board. The dead were 1st Lt. Robert B. Black, pilot; 1st Lt. Harold S. Spicer, co-pilot; 1st Lt. Philip L. Benefiel, navigator; 1st Lt. Jack E. McDannell, bombardier; Capt. Julian B. Massey Jr., radar observer; 2nd Lt. Thomas F. Carlow, radar observer; M/Sgt William H. Day, engineer; Cpl. Theodore P. Sells, 2nd engineer; S/Sgt Charles G. Slifkey, radio operator; S/Sgt Thomas M. Crean, radio operator; SISgt Charles A. Jellings, gunner; Sgt Harold M. Hanna, gunner; and S/Sgt Robert O. Troyer, gunner. They were with Strategic Air Command's 15th Air Force, 301st Bomber Group, 352nd Squadron, based at Smoky Hill Air Force Base in Salina, Kansas.