Kenneth
R. Frost
(Submitted by,
Charles C. Walker/95th - Friend)
(Photos from
the 9/22/98, Desert Dispatch)
Williams Field
- Class 44A
Betty Tucker and Lt.
Kenneth R. Frost in front of Frost's P-38, the 'Batlin Bet'.
P-38L
sin 44-24492 17 SEP 45 30 miles northeast of Daggett CA.
Last January
AAIR was contacted by Thomas Van Stein with a request for an
accident report
for Lt. Kenneth Frost, who was killed in a P-38 in a stateside
accident in
1945. Thomas related the story of his mother and Lt. Frost, who
were dating
prior to Lt. Frost being sent to Italy where he served with the
15th
AF, 82nd FG.
Lt. Frost had painted a caricature of Thomas' mom on his P-38
and named it
Battlin' Bette after her. Lt. Frost returned from Italy where
he
had damaged
a German aircraft in the air and destroyed another on the
ground. Lt.
Frost was awarded the DFC for one of the missions he led in Italy,
but the paper
work was still going through "channels" when Lt. Frost was killed
and his father
received it for him four months after his death. Back Stateside
Lt. Frost started
instructing at Daggett AAF in CA with the 444th Base Unit. Just
two weeks before
his training unit was decommissioned, Lt. Frost was killed in
an accident
during gunnery training. Many years later, Thomas found pictures
of the P-38
with his mother's name on the nose and began to investigate,
taking him
through many years of research, eventually coming to AAIR to
obtain the official
accident report. After locating and reviewing the accident
report, I told
Thomas that I felt that there was a good possibility that we could
locate Lt. Frost's
crash site. Thomas contacted Major Barry Johnson, the NTC &
Ft. Irwin Public
Affairs Officer, who was extremely helpful in securing
permission to
go out onto the gunnery range. On September 18, the day after
the 53rd anniversary
of Lt. Frost's crash, AAIR (Heidi and Craig Fuller) met up
with Thomas
Van Stein and Steve Blake, an aviation historian and author, and
drove up the
Fort Irwin where we were met by Major Johnson. On the base we
were joined
by Dr. Mark Allen, base archaeologist, and David Drudge, a
reporter from
the Desert Dispatch, which is the Barstow CA paper. Lt. Frost's
brother, Hal
Frost, was also supposed to join us, but due to health problems
was unable to
make it. Using the photos in the accident report to locate the
area of the
crash, we immediately identified the location of the target Lt.
Frost
had made a
rocket run on. From the report we knew that his wing dug into
the
ground 200
yards past the target. After playing with the crash report photos
we fanned out
and
soon started
finding aircraft debris. After a while of searching I finally
recognized
two parts as being typical of a P-38. Marking the debris with
flags
as we
went, we were able to determine the path of the aircraft after
it hit. We
eventually
found four separate part numbers that confirmed the crash was
a P-
38. We
were also able to exactly match the report photos. The style of
the
debris
trail also confirmed it was Lt. Frost's accident. We located the
main bum
area
where the range crew had pulled Lt. Frost's body from the wreckage
(though
unfortunately too late). There was even a parachute buckle on
top of
the surface.
It was a moving sight for the group as we all took a moment to
silently
relive in our minds the events that had occurred so long ago.
In all I
would
estimate there was only 5 to 10 pounds remaining of the 12,780
lb.
aircraft.
It had most likely been cleaned up shortly after the accident
or during
a range
cleaning operation. There are currently two dirt roads that cut
through
the wreckage.
The base archaeologist is going to send in a CA archaeological
site record
and register the site with the SHPO (State Historic Preservation
Office).
He will also make sure that base activities don't do any further
damage
to the
site. I would like to thank Fort Irwin and especially Major Barry
Johnson
and Dr.
Mark Allen for their help. site was identified by Lockheed inspection
the
pen for
scale. stamps and P-38 part numbers on parts like this.
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