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I was an Air Force Photographer in Germany in 1988, and spent a week on the site of an A-10 crash in residential Remscheid. I recently Googled it out of curiosity and found this Forum among many other links. I was surprised to see there's an ongoing debate about whether or not this A-10 was carrying depleted uranium rounds or not, and what the health effects might be/have been. What was initially a nostalgia web search has turned into a concern for my health. Does anyone know anything more about it?

Despite the web sites out there trying to make everyone paranoid about DU, that Big Mac you had for lunch yesterday or secondhand smoke will have more of an affect on your health.

I take it you trust the World Health Organization, right? Well, read their fact sheet and reports on DU:

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs257/en/
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2001/WHO_SDE_OEH_01.12.pdf

Unless you were eating dirt from the site, and have been for years afterwards, you are not likely to have suffered any effects from the week at the crash site. If you are truly concerned, see your doctor or go to a VA facility to have it checked out.

Cheers! M2



Edited by - majormadmax on Dec 21 2005 5:41 PM

I am 99.9999999999999999% sure there was no DU at the crash site. That doesn't mean your health would not be affected by digging around the wreckage, but not by DU.

Were any of your photos published? There was lots of heartburn with one particular picture that Stars and Stripes put on the front page.

Coach

Thanks to both of you for responding. I'll go check out those links.

Fortunately I never ate any dirt on site, so hopefully I'm fine. I did spend a lot of time knee deep on the impact spot though.

I don't recall any of my photography being published - it was all documentation for the Air Force. Having said that, I'm sure we gave some images to Public Affairs as we always did for the Spangdahlem base newspaper. I think someone would tell me though if one of my images made it to the Stars and Stripes.

What was the image exactly?

I do remember taking pictures of a resident's vehicle from the main apartment building. She was away during the crash, and I was there when she was first let through the cordon to salvage personal effects. I'll never forget this: She drove up in a Jeep Wrangler, custom painted from front to back as an American Flag. A german. I doubt she waves our flag around much anymore if she's still alive. It was pretty sad, and tragically ironic. Anyway, I could imagine that would have been controversial if it had been published. To my knowledge it never was.

I guess you saw this during your search...

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><font size=1 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>No DU found from 1988 A-10 crash in Remscheid

From: uranium@t-online.de

No DU was found in soil samples collected at the site in Remscheid, Germany, where an U.S. A-10 aircraft crashed in 1988.

(Remscheider General-Anzeiger, April 11, 2002)<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size=2 id=quote>

Also, there was some discussion on the S&S photograph on this thread...

http://forum.a-10.org/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2983

Cheers! M2]

Thanks for the links. I actually have read the one about the soil samples. The more I read about it, the better I feel.

Now I'm more intrigued about the photo in the Stars and Stripes. It might have been on of mine. I shot about a hundred rolls of film that week, so who knows. It was a rough week, and when I got back to base I tried to forget about the whole thing, so it's possible I missed it being published in the Stars and Stripes.

Derek,
It just so happens that I did the the investigation of the engines on the crash in Remscheid and still have a copy of the Stars and Stripes dated 10 December 1988. The picture on the front page was taken from a point above the impact site. Inside there are three pictures. One is of the pilots helmet hanging from a tree, the second is German and American investigators tagging wreckage in the street and the last is a destroyed home and burnt out car. The tag under the pictures say they were all taken by Stars and Stripes photographer L. Emmett Lewis Jr. If you'd like, I can try to scan the paper. Send me an e-mail at cldar@adelphia.net if you are interested.
The article in the paper quotes Maj Gen Marcus Anderson saying that there was 1,000 rounds of "training ammunition" on the jet and some rounds exploded in the fire following the crash.
Since I was dispatched from Kelly AFB Texas to the site, by the time I arrived most of the wreckage had been moved into a hanger so they could get the town cleaned up. What a mess. Pieces and parts were scattered all over the floor and in dumpsters, boxes and anything they could find. Made my job that much more difficult.
I do remember seeing a German magazine that had pictures of the engines. One was inside someone's living room after falling through the roof and the other was in another family's driveway. I also remember a female Airman photographer that was there from Spangdahlem. She was really good looking and she showed me a lot of the pictures that had been taken so I'm sure I saw some of yours. It was a nasty accident. Probably the worst A-10 crash that I ever investigated. I also still have a copy of my investigation report. It was aircraft 81-0957 out of Bentwaters.
Anyway, if you are interested in seeing the article, let me know.
Chuck

The helmet-in-the-tree picture really didn't go over well at Bentwaters. Unnecessary sensationalism.

I'll never forget that picture...Rocky and his family were neighbors of mine.

Coach

The picture you are talking about Coach was <img src=icon_smile_dissapprove.gif border=0 align=middle>.
I remember it now because it was passed around at EAFB La.
It was bad enough to hear about a pilot in a crash,then see pictures.
I understand the USAF needs them for the Board,but the public doesnt need to see them.

Goose

LIVE FREE OR DIE

_________________
\"Live Free Or Die\"

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><font size=1 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>I understand the USAF needs them for the Board,but the public doesnt need to see them. <hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size=2 id=quote>

I couldn't agree more with you Goose.

Fender
"A woman drove me to drink
and I hadn't even the courtesy to thank her".
W.C. Fields

Thanks Engineguy,

I don't know who the Stars & Stripes photographer was, but the Airman at the hanger documenting recovered pieces was SRA Joy Tolliver. Fair skinned African American with green eyes. Her and I worked together at the Spangdahlem AB Photo Lab, but I haven't heard from her since I left Germany in '92.

I remember the hemet in the tree from being there, but don't remember it being published. Very poor taste, and completely insensitive to his friends and family. I remember that and a lot of other horrible details from that week, but won't write them in this public forum for the same reason.

I still have a couple German magazines from the time on the crash.

I live in a Seattle suburb a lot like that neighborhood in Remchied, with the thick trees, hills and fog. Whenever it's foggy here, I still smell that smell that was there the first night I arrived, and I'm brought back to Remscheid.

Thanks to everyone who's chimed in on this thread. It's really been interesting.

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><font size=1 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>

Derek,
It just so happens that I did the the investigation of the engines on the crash in Remscheid and still have a copy of the Stars and Stripes dated 10 December 1988. The picture on the front page was taken from a point above the impact site. Inside there are three pictures. One is of the pilots helmet hanging from a tree, the second is German and American investigators tagging wreckage in the street and the last is a destroyed home and burnt out car. The tag under the pictures say they were all taken by Stars and Stripes photographer L. Emmett Lewis Jr. If you'd like, I can try to scan the paper. Send me an e-mail at cldar@adelphia.net if you are interested.
The article in the paper quotes Maj Gen Marcus Anderson saying that there was 1,000 rounds of "training ammunition" on the jet and some rounds exploded in the fire following the crash.
Since I was dispatched from Kelly AFB Texas to the site, by the time I arrived most of the wreckage had been moved into a hanger so they could get the town cleaned up. What a mess. Pieces and parts were scattered all over the floor and in dumpsters, boxes and anything they could find. Made my job that much more difficult.
I do remember seeing a German magazine that had pictures of the engines. One was inside someone's living room after falling through the roof and the other was in another family's driveway. I also remember a female Airman photographer that was there from Spangdahlem. She was really good looking and she showed me a lot of the pictures that had been taken so I'm sure I saw some of yours. It was a nasty accident. Probably the worst A-10 crash that I ever investigated. I also still have a copy of my investigation report. It was aircraft 81-0957 out of Bentwaters.
Anyway, if you are interested in seeing the article, let me know.
Chuck


<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size=2 id=quote>

That was Rocky's jet?

Different Rocky than the Silver Fox at Nellis.

Coach

Derek,

crashes just plain SUCK! I dont envy you one bit my friend but you did your job and have intergity by not writing about it here.
For that I salute you<img src=newicons/smiley_salute.gif border=0 align=middle>

And the pilot <img src=newicons/smiley_salute.gif border=0 align=middle>




Goose

LIVE FREE OR DIE

_________________
\"Live Free Or Die\"