F‐106A 58‐0798 June 1966 Crash In Lake Huron, MI Robert A. Oberst Received after the F‐106 Reunion at Dayton, OH Sep, 2013
The crash of the F-106 was for real. On 15 June 1966, I was moving my Mobile Home to the on-base court. It turned out to be a short new address as I got orders soon afterwards for Castle AFB, California. For the F-106 (#58-0798) though, it was a long stay at the bottom of Lake Huron. It crashed from some unknown reason and it ended up crashing in Lake Huron -- just North of the Bridge at Port Huron. A rescue started, but only lasted for a few days as they only found a few F-106 parts and the Pilot's helmet -the rest was never found in the lake. At the time though, it was reported that a barge had seen the aircraft was partially sunk off-shore, but it was sinking fast, but the canopy and pilot was seen intact yet before it disappeared. The pilot's name was Major
William J. Vinopal, age at the time was 37
years old, he had a family, grave memorial # 24079563 at Arlington National Cemetery. The information obtained came from several Michigan Newspapers -- Holland Sentinal, (16 June 1966) Ironwood Dailey Globe(15 June 1966), Janesville Gazette (15 June 1966) and Traverse City Record Eagle(15 June 1966). This Information was obtained by the Portage County Library located in Stevens Point, Wisconsin 54481.
http://www.f-106deltadart.com/databases/f-106inventory/f106_inventory_view.php?editid1=171
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