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The Benefits of Retirement...
Near Fillmore, California
May 29, 1971
A
Distinguished Career...
When
Richard Hunziker graduated from the University of Arizona at Tucson with a
bachelor of science degree, he probably would not have guessed that the career
he would embark upon would end so long and meritorious. He would go on to earned
his pilot wings, and a commission as a second lieutenant, in 1942.
 During World War II, he served as a P-40 and P-47 fighter pilot in Africa,
Italy, France, Sicily, Malta and Corsica with the 57th Fighter Group, completing
more than 200 combat missions, and being credited with shooting down two enemy
aircraft.
After the
war, in June 1948, he was assigned to U.S. Air Forces in Europe as a squadron
commander and deputy commander, 36th Fighter Group, and commander of the 86th
Fighter Group in Germany.
A series
of promotions, educational opportunities, and increases in responsibility would
conclude with his taking of the office as deputy inspector general for
inspection and safety, headquartered at Norton Air Force Base in California.
A year
before retirement the general was making headlines as the officer in charge of
over 400 men, assigned the task of locating a cargo of A-bombs which were lost
in the crash of a B-52 bomber on the Greenland icecap in the arctic winter.
By this
time, he was a two-star General in the Air Force, and having received the
Distinguished Service Medal, America's highest military decoration for
non-combat service.
His
military decorations also include the Silver Star, Legion of Merit,
Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters, Air Medal with 13 oak
leaf clusters, Air Force Commendation Medal, the French Croix de Guerre with
Palm, and the French Croix de Guerre with Star. He was a jet rated command pilot
with more than 6,800 flying hours and wore the Senior Missileman Badge.
Out
to Pasture...
But,
seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, General Hunziker retired on September
1st, 1969. He and his wife, Margaret, retired to the southern
California town of Carpinteria.
In mid-May
of 1971, the couple decided to fly their white and red Cessna 182, registered as
N2147G,
south to visit Mexican border towns. On the afternoon of May 29th,
1971, Hunziker got a weather briefing, and took off with his wife from Calexico,
to return to their home airport of Santa Barbara. During the flight, their plane
encountered poor visibility, and vanished in the mountains northwest of
Los Angeles.
Despite
not having filed a flight plan, the sheriff's offices of San Diego and Santa
Barbara counties provided planes to aid the search, which was centered in the
San Jacinto and San Bernadrino mountain ranges midway between the Mexican border
and the California coast. Civil Air Patrol planes flew search patterns over the
Borrego Pass area west of the Salton Sea, along with one Air Force plane all the
way from Hamilton Field in northern California.
 Major Don
K. Domeyer, of Huntington Beach, piloted his own plane out of the search base at
Chino, with Lt. Nick Dibs, of Lakewood, as his observer. The pair of Long Beach
CAP officers, both with Air Rescue Squadron 150, located Hunziker's plane on
Sunday, June 6th, over a week after the General's plane went missing. It had
crashed into a thicket of trees on Hines Peak, near the rugged Sespe Hot Springs
wilderness area in Los Padres National Forest.
Too
Little Too Late...
When ground crews reached the crash site
the following day, they found both still strapped in the seat of the cockpit,
having both apparently died instantly from possible massive internal injuries.
It appeared that Hunziker tried to miss the peak, but the plane did not have
enough power and it crashed "belly" first.
The bodies were removed from the wreck,
and airlifted to Conover Field in Lockwood Valley, then taken to a mortuary in
Santa Paula.
The NTSB
concluded the probable cause of the crash was the pilot-in-command's continued
VFR flight into adverse weather conditions, due to low ceilings, and likely
downdrafts or updrafts. |
