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lake Erie Incident

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Cine22 : Thanks for your appreciation. It was a very hard two or three weeks back in Aug-Sept 1967.

I had spent a lot of time on the ground ( using dynamite to take down a big tree at the end of the runway ) and also in the air with these guys.

I drove from Toronto every Friday , jumped until sonetime Monday and then went back home, doing most of my "work" as a Union Special Business Rep over the telephone enroute.

We sure had great weekends, and the last jumps I made with a bunch of those guys was exactly 2 weeks to the day before the fatal jump.

Then to add more insult to the misery, we lost a 16 yr old lad one week after the Lake Erie event. His name was Paul Camelford, and he had told his parents that he knew I was coming to Parkman on the first weekend in Sept.

He came to me and asked if he did one more stable jump, would I go up with him and take pictures of him. He also asked me to sign his last jumps in his logbook, made on Saturday, and what one would use for a heading, and how to make slow turns to a heading.

I agreed to the picture jump, and told him how to turn onto a heading, like a road or treeline.

About 7:30 to 8;00 am next morning, he went up for his first jump on the Sunday , Dale was pilot, and said Paul had exited the aircraft over Mumford Rd. He made a small right correction, and held his heading until impact. We found his body about 2 hours later.

No attempt was made to use any chute. I guess he was just mezmerized. Really a loss...a fine young lad, and coming one week after the Lake Erie drop, everyone couldnt believe this could happen.....but it did.

We visited his funeral parlour that weekend before returning to Toronto.

Thanks again Cine22,

Bill Cole




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Bill, my father was Dan Harding D44, he talked very highly of you, and I actually met you a few times as a child. I was at the field that day and we were all shocked when all we saw were two parachutes instead of the expected 18.
There were actually 20 guys on that plane, Larry Hartman and another jumper (I don't recall his name)were going up for an altitude record attempt, and didn't exit with the first 18. Of course nobody knew what had happened at the time, but we knew something was definitely wrong
My Dad was supposed to make that jump but unfortunately he hurt his back earlier in August and couldn't make the jump. I say "unfortunately", because had he been on the plane he probably would have been jump master, and although he was something of a maveric, he would not have allowed the jump through the clouds; it seems destiny had other plans. Like you he knew every guy on that plane, some were part of his team, some were his best friends, and unfortunately he had the grizzly task of identifying many of the bodies---although he continued jumping for several years before finally breaking his back, like you, he never got over it

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Nice to hear from you. I remember Dan and the " Red Eagles".

I jumped with your Dad at Wakeman, Ohio, when Bob Karns and Dean Ortner put on a show. Dan spotted one load on the DC 3, and I spotted the second load.

I hope you are well.

Bery best to you

Bill Cole




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Bill, thanks for the quick response, and the thanks for remembering my dad and "The Red Eagles"
I just wanted you to know what an honor it is to actually communicate with you, a true pioneer of the sport, and a true ground breaker.
I just wonder if a lot of the newer guys understand the caliber of the man they are talking to in terms of what you've meant to the sport in those early days.
A lot of the old timers are gone now, and with them went a rare breed of ground breakers that shaped what the sport is today.
Anyway, I reread your original post and I see that you did mention Larry and the other jumper; missed that the first time. Also, was the "Johnson" you refeRred to in your post Roy Johnson?
And finally, I seem to recall an incident with you, not long after the Lake Erie incident, making some hay about jumping off a building in Canada...decades before the term "base jumping was ever uttered lol, is my memory correct on that?
Again, thanks Bill for the quick response, and thanks for all you've done for the sport, you truly are the last of the Mohicans
Take care Bill, and best wishes to you and yours
Dan

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I have a picture of your Dad from 02 -15 70 At Pontiac Mi.Bill Keating arranged for the first DC-3 jumps in Michigan I made all the jumps into Oxford that day. Bill called around and got your Dad and friends to come from Ohio. I can get a copy made if you like. Pete Myks Lou Schroeder Jerry Marklin Ted Pullum Connie Crowton ,a few from Saginaw too.
I started jumping on 09-08-1967 after hearing a jumper say "Start now FAA is going to get real strict" So i did

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Re your question: It wasn't Roy Johnson: He was the style and accuracy champion for the USA;, the other guy was Bud Johnson, who with Larry Hartman, went to a higher altitude on Aug 27th 67.

There was a magazine article about 1969 which had me on the cover, stating I would jump of the ( then ) tallest building in Toronto for a large sum.

I was later suspended the second time for LIFE, for talking about the "possibility" of jumping from a cliff like the Grand Canyon.

It never came t pass, but I was asked to jump from the CN Tower, first time, on the third anniversary of its opening when the winds were about 40 MPH and it had to be cancelled;, and the next time, for a movie. A very greedy lawyer told the producer of the film, he was starting to negotiate at a 6 figure amount. The producer then got Dar Robinson to make te jump, and after he did, I spoke to Dar, and suggested that kind of jump was worth a lot more than he got (25K).He agreed, but said he wanted the publicity.

Dar is gone now, an I am still here...perhaps for not too much longer though.

Nice to hear from you Dan. Take care.

Bill Cole




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Larry, talk about a small world, I actually accompanied my dad to Pontiac for that jump, in fact if memory serves me we stayed at Connie's place, and the reason I remember that is because he had a well or a spring on his property that spewed out the most aweful smelling sulphur water, and being a 14 year old kid from the city, I thought that was quite strange (we are talking about the same Connie right?)

Anyway I was thrilled beyond words to hear you had a picture of my dad...and here's why; all of his many scrapbooks, all of his pictures, his news clippings, his memorabilia, his airborn wings, his silver, gold, and platinum wings etc were all lost leaving absolutely nothing of his history or even his image. It's a long story as to how and why that happened and probably not appropriate for this forum, but bottom line, we have nothing to even know he existed other than his grave site; that has been a major heartbreak for my family, and his many grandkids don't even know what he looked like
If there is a way that I could get a copy of that picture, it would mean more to my family and me than I could begin to express in words
And I would appreciate it more than you could ever know---we've actually been looking for guys that may have some pictures, and bam, there you are
I'll paste and copy this post and send it to your email along with my contact info, then we can decide how to do it; scan and email?? send hard copy?? Of course what ever the costI'll cover, and which ever way is easiest for you is the way we'll do it
In closing, thank you Larry, you have no idea what having a that picture means to us and the gravity of your kindness to offer it!
In gratitude beyond words
Dan

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I just stumbled on this forum and wanted to add that my dad was planning to make that jump 49 years ago but got a very bad case of the flu instead and missed it. My dad was Joe Cooper D-333. My mom says that they attended many of the funerals for the men who died in Lake Erie, as my dad knew so many of them. He always said that skydiving was the most thrilling thing he had ever done -- until the day he got saved and came to the Lord -- which he said was even more thrilling to him. He passed away a few years ago doing the thing he loved the most, mission work in India where he is now buried.

Say, I went looking for the Lake Erie incident after reading a book by Mickey Robinson who tells about how he came to God through his skydiving accident (or rather plane crash that left him horribly burned). He mentions quite frequently how Dan Harding D-44 trained him, and then visited him day after day when he was in the hospital. So it is neat to see Dan's son posting here.

My dad was also in more than one plane crash, but in the worst one, two men died while my dad was pulled to safety. He broke his leg on the last jump of his career during a charity event during a terrible 4th of July storm. He was blown off course, missed a power line, and then collapsed his chute in a tree. But even though nobody was around to see, he attempted to hit the ground standing. That didn't work out too well for him.

Many years later, he jumped off of a moving train in India, broke his ribs, but continued on with his schedule. I bet a lot of his skydiving buddies were like him. A real John Wayne.

Thanks Chuteless for sharing the story about that day the men died on Lake Erie. It helped me understand what my dad could've went through if things had turned out just a bit differently.

Dean Cooper

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