Crash at Sasnashen

Armodoxy for Today – Crash at Sasnashen

On September 2, 1958, during the height of the Cold War, – an unarmed United States Air Force C-130 flying a reconnaissance mission on the Turkish/Armenian border was shot down by the Soviet Union. Seventeen United States Air Force airmen were killed in the crash in the village of Sasnashen, near the town of Talin. The Soviets did not disclose the details of the shoot-down for several years and it wasn’t until 1992 – some 34 years after the incident – that the remains of all 17 servicemen were returned to the United States for proper recognition and committal. Since that time commemorations have been taken place, including the placing of a khatchkar (cross stone) and a monument at the crash site with visits by U.S. military and government officials.

In 2018 I was invited to the Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska to deliver the keynote address at a gathering commemorating the 60^th Anniversary of the shoot down of US Air Force C-130 #60528. I also prayed the requiem prayer (hokehankist) of the Armenian Church for these airmen.

The C-130 took off from an airbase in Turkey, that is, occupied Armenia. It fell in the Soviet Union, that is another corner of occupied Armenia. The plain that shot down the aircraft was a MiG-17, named after the Armenian builder of the airplane, Migoyan. And this Armenian priest promised the 200+ assembled descendants and Air Force personnel in Nebraska, that he would never forget this incident and share the story with all that came his way.

Please join me at https://epostle.net/Sasnashen for the entire story of courage, bravery, valor, cover-up, commemoration and life. For today, I leave you with the words of the inscription on the plaque that sits at the crash site in Sasnashen:

We must never forget that freedom is never really free. It is the most costly thing in the world. Freedom is never paid in a lump sum. Installments come due in every generation. All any of us can do is offer the generations that follow a chance for freedom.

A very special edition of Armodoxy for Today, a one-minute PLUS for Summertime.