“To live without risk for me would be tantamount to death.”
- Jacqueline Cochran
Nearly a decade before Otis Redding (see Oddsconsin 39), Lake Monona was the site of another fatal airplane crash. Although the loss of life was not as great, the story is still a tragic one.
On May 5, 1958, Lt. Gerald Stull was on a routine training flight in an Air Force F-102 Delta Dagger, a single-seat fighter/interceptor. [1] At 1:30 pm, three miles south of the runway at Truax Field in Madison, Stull radioed in that he was in trouble. He crashed into Lake Monona just south of Hudson Park on the north shore of the lake. The airplane disintegrated on contact with the water. [2]
Police and Air Force boat crews salvaged the wrecked airplane, parts of which were embedded fifteen feet into the bottom of the lake. Stull had ejected from the airplane before the crash, but too late for his parachute to deploy. Witnesses reported seeing the canopy of the jet fly off but saw no evidence of a parachute unfurling. Initial investigations suggested that the jet had a “flame out” – a cut in engine power due to mechanical failure. [3]
Witnesses reported that, at the last second, the airplane dove down at a sharp angle before striking the surface of the water. It seems Stull intentionally crashed into the lake to avoid hitting homes on the lakeshore. For this act of heroism, he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Later, a memorial was built in Hudson Park. [4]
In a strange coincidence, Stull was a native of Valdosta, Georgia, only 150 miles from Macon, Georgia, where Otis Redding lived.
It’s difficult to find complete information on military aircraft accidents. Some individuals have taken it on themselves to compile lists and searchable databases, but these are incomplete and often contain limited information, due to the effort involved in obtaining the accident reports from the military. The following is a partial list of fatal military aircraft accidents in Wisconsin after the end of World War II, compiled from various sources.
1952. An F-80 Shooting Star [5] crashed in a farm field near Cottage Grove, killing the pilot. [6]
September 21, 1952. An Air Force C-47 transport plane [7] landing at Truax Field struck a car on Hwy 51, killing all four passengers of the vehicle. [3][6]
January 31, 1953. An Air Force F-86 Sabre [8] crashed in bad weather while on its final approach to Truax Field, killing the pilot, a veteran of World War II and the Korean War. [9]
1953. Four jet interceptors, flying in a snowstorm, were unable to find Truax Field while attempting to land. They ran out of fuel and crashed. Two pilots ejected and survived and two were killed. [6]
November 23, 1953. An F-89 Scorpion [10] from Truax Field crashed into the UW-Madison Arboretum, killing both pilots. [3][6]
1953. An F-86 Sabre and an F-89 Scorpion collided in mid-air. One of the jets crashed in a farm field near Deerfield, injuring the pilot. The other jet crashed near Watertown, injuring the pilot and killing the radar operator. [6]
1954. An Air Force F-89 Scorpion from Truax Field crashed and exploded about 200 yards east of Hwy 51, killing the pilot. [6]
March 1, 1958. An Air National Guard T-33 [11] crashed into a marsh north of Truax Field, killing the pilot. [3]
August 5, 1959. An F-89 Scorpion crashed into a barge in Milwaukee harbor in heavy fog. The pilot, an Air National Guard officer, and the radar observer were both killed. The jet avoided striking a densely populated area, a cluster of 72 petroleum tanks, two tankers dispensing gasoline, and a cache of 250 pounds of dynamite. [12]
February 24, 1961. Four crew members were killed when a B-47 Stratojet bomber [13] crashed about 14 miles south of Hurley, Wisconsin. [14]
May 2, 1961. Two crew members were killed when another B-47 crashed south of Hurley. The site was later designated as a Wisconsin State Memorial. [14]
1964. An F-89 Scorpion crashed during takeoff from Truax Field, killing the radar observer. [6]
November 18, 1966. A B-52 Stratofortress [15] bomber crashed near Stone Lake, in Sawyer County, killing all nine crew members. The crew was on a night mission to test the performance of a new ground reconnaissance radar. The aircraft got too low to the ground and crashed into a densely wooded area. [16]
1967. A jet from Truax Field crashed a thousand feet north of the runway, killing the pilot and injuring the co-pilot. [6]
January 29, 1969. A KC-97 Stratotanker [17], operated by the Wisconsin Air National Guard, crashed in poor weather conditions on its approach to Milwaukee’s Mitchell Airport. The airplane struck the ground and burst into flames. Seven crew members were injured and four were killed. [18][19][20]
1975. A training airplane from Truax Field crashed near Lodi, killing the pilot. [6]
December 10, 1993. An Air National Guard KC-135 Stratotanker [21] caught fire and exploded at Milwaukee’s Mitchell Airport, killing six ground crew members. [22]
It’s a long list. And it’s certainly incomplete.
Flying is a dangerous activity, especially when performing low-level maneuvers, landing in bad weather, or travelling faster than the speed of sound.
It’s only fitting, in a way, that Truax Field is named after Wisconsin native Lt. Thomas Truax, who was killed on a military training flight in San Anselmo, California in 1941. Truax’s P-40 Warhawk [23], flying in poor weather and low on fuel, crashed into the side of a hill, possibly due to a faulty altimeter reading. [24]
Sources and Notes
[1] The Convair F-102 Delta Dagger, introduced at Truax in 1956, was designed to intercept and destroy enemy bombers and was capable of flying faster than the speed of sound.
[2] Wisconsin State Journal, Dec. 12, 1967, pp. 1-2.
[3] Wisconsin State Journal, May 6, 1958, p 1-2.
[4] military-history.fandom.com, List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft (1955–1959). https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_military_aircraft_(1955%E2%80%931959)
[5] The Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star was the first jet fighter to enter US service, in 1945. It had a high accident rate and was even banned for a period.
[6] Madison Environmental Justice, Truax Aircraft Crash Summary (partial). https://mejo.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Truax-Aircraft-Crash-Summary.pdf
[7] The Douglas C-47 Skytrain – a twin-engine propeller airplane – was a military variant of the Douglas DC-3, a highly successful aircraft first used by the US military in World War II.
[8] The North American Aviation F-86 Sabre was the US’s first swept-wing jet fighter and was heavily used in the Korean War. In 1953, Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier in a F-86.
[9] military-history.fandom.com, List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft (1950–1954). https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_military_aircraft_(1950%E2%80%9354)
[10] The Northrop F-89 Scorpion was a twin-engine jet fighter/interceptor developed in the late 1940s.
[11] The Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star was a jet trainer first used 1940s.
[12] Sam Woods, How a 1959 military plane crash is connected to Milwaukee’s annual Air and Water Show, WUWM 89.7, July 25, 2025. https://www.wuwm.com/government-politics/2025-07-25/how-a-1959-military-plane-crash-is-connected-to-milwaukees-annual-air-and-water-show
[13] The Boeing B-47 Stratojet was a multi-engine long-range jet bomber, capable of carrying nuclear bombs. It entered operational service in 1951.
[14] Col Alexander, Memories of a Navigator, B-47 Stratojet Historical Website. https://b-47.com/?page_id=1174
[15] The Boeing B-52 is a multi-engine long-range jet bomber used by the Air Force from the 1950s until the present. It is capable of carrying nuclear or conventional bombs.
[16] The Stone Lake B-52 crash will be discussed in depth next week by Oddsconsin.
[17] The Boeing KC-97 Stratotanker was a propeller-powered, multi-engine tanker airplane.
[18] Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archive, Crash of a Boeing KC-97L Stratotanker in Milwaukee: 4 killed. https://www.baaa-acro.com/index.php/crash/crash-boeing-kc-97l-stratotanker-milwaukee-4-killed
[19] Aviation Safety Network. https://asn.flightsafety.org/wikibase/331621
[20] military-history.fandom.com, List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft (1960–74). https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_military_aircraft_(1960%E2%80%9374)
[21] The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker is an aerial refueling airplane based on a prototype of the Boeing 707 civilian airliner.
[22] www.wishistory.com, Wisconsin Aviation Accidents http://www.wishistory.com/Wisnews/airaccidents.html
[23] The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk was a single-engine propellor-driven US fighter from World War II.
[24] military-history.fandom.com, List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft (1940–1944). https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_military_aircraft_(1940%E2%80%931944)