302nd TCW Aircraft Accident Memorial
Wilmington, Clinton County, Ohio
Marker Inscription
In Memoriam Lt. Col. Richard M. Griswold Maj. Stanley H. Heismann Maj. James A. Hopkins Capt. Woodson B. Gudgell Capt. Ernest B. Milligan Capt. Robert L. Timmons S Sgt. Richard F. Davis S Sgt. Clyde Grimes
The Story
In the decades after World War II, Wilmington's Clinton County Air Force Base became home to military airlift crews, including the 302nd Troop Carrier Wing—the flyers who moved troops and cargo in the great transport planes of the day. This memorial names eight officers and non-commissioned officers, from a lieutenant colonel down to staff sergeants, lost together in an aircraft accident while serving. Their mix of ranks tells the story of a full crew and its commanders, the kind of men who kept America's Cold War airlift aloft, brought together on one plane and remembered on one stone.
Why it matters
It marks the quiet, non-combat cost of military service—airmen who died in the line of duty far from any battlefield—and honors the airlift crews who made Clinton County Air Force Base a chapter in Ohio's aviation history.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
After World War II, the United States built a standing air power unlike anything in its history, and much of that power rested not on fighters or bombers but on the unglamorous work of airlift — moving troops and cargo wherever they were needed, in fleets of large transport planes. Air bases sprang up across the country to fly, maintain, and crew those aircraft.
Wilmington, in Clinton County, Ohio, became part of that world. Its Clinton County Air Force Base put this quiet stretch of southwest Ohio farm country into the middle of America's Cold War military aviation, home to airlift crews and the units that trained and flew them.
This memorial belongs to that chapter — the postwar decades when the men who kept transport planes aloft were as essential to national defense as anyone flying over a front line.
People & events
The stone names eight men lost together in an aircraft accident while serving with the 302nd Troop Carrier Wing — the flyers who moved troops and cargo in the transport aircraft of their day.
Read the ranks and you can see the shape of the loss: Lt. Col. Richard M. Griswold, Maj. Stanley H. Heismann, Maj. James A. Hopkins, Capt. Woodson B. Gudgell, Capt. Ernest B. Milligan, Capt. Robert L. Timmons, and Staff Sergeants Richard F. Davis and Clyde Grimes. From a lieutenant colonel down to staff sergeants, the mix reads like a full complement — commanders and crew brought down together.
The marker records their names and their loss, and it is honest to leave it there rather than embroider it. Eight men went up on one aircraft, and eight men are remembered on one stone. That is the fact the memorial was built to keep.
Its place in the American story
Not every military death happens in battle. A great many of the men and women who have served the United States were lost in training, in transit, and in the daily hazards of operating complex machines — the line-of-duty cost that rarely makes the history books.
Airlift crews carried much of that hidden risk. The work of flying transports, day in and day out, was demanding and dangerous long before anyone reached a war zone, and accidents took a real toll on the units that did it.
This memorial insists that this kind of sacrifice counts. By naming eight airmen lost in an accident, it places them firmly within the nation's roll of those who gave their lives in service — and it keeps a piece of Clinton County's aviation history from fading along with the base that once anchored it.
If you visit
Come to read the names. That is the heart of this memorial — eight individuals, set down together, each with a rank that hints at a role and a life.
Let yourself feel the quiet of the setting. This is Ohio farm country now, not a flight line, and the contrast is part of the story: an accident that took a full crew, remembered on calm ground far from any battlefield.
If you're tracing the aviation history of Clinton County, this is a fitting and sobering stop. Stand before the eight names and remember that America's Cold War airlift was flown by people — and that some of them never came home from the work of keeping it aloft.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Lt. Col. Richard M. Griswold
- · Maj. Stanley H. Heismann
- · Maj. James A. Hopkins
- · Capt. Woodson B. Gudgell
- · Capt. Ernest B. Milligan
- · Capt. Robert L. Timmons
- · S Sgt. Richard F. Davis
- · S Sgt. Clyde Grimes
Related events
- · 302nd Troop Carrier Wing aircraft accident
Themes & tags
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