The military trainer plane was over the vast expanse of the Croatan National Forest when its single engine started making sickening noises. The pilot, Lt. (jg) Juan R. Mayer, knew that going down into the tall pines meant certain death for himself and his young passenger, Midshipman D. C. Billiam, a student at Northwestern University.
Mayer had piloted the craft from Jacksonville, Florida almost reaching his destination – the Cherry Point air base – when things went awry. Looking below, the only opening in the forest appeared to be a cluster of four lakes in wetlands a few miles west of the base. The one he headed for was named Ellis Lake.
Agnes Barden of New Bern was with a hunting party at Camp Bryan Rod & Gun Club, a private preserve nestled on the edge of the lake. Among the 16-year-old’s companions that day – Sunday, March 26, 1950 – were her father, U.S. Congressman Graham A. Barden, Joseph Anthony and Joseph Latham, all of New Bern, and a Camp Bryan hired hand remembered only by the name of Nelson.
Agnes heard the plane before she saw it cruising low over the lake’s dark water. Standing by the club’s boat dock, she watched breathless as the plane first “dipped in at the water, skidded on the surface and careened into a clump of trees on the swampy land.” She and Nelson wasted no time. They ran for an outboard motor boat and began cutting a wake for the crash site more than a mile away. Arriving first on the scene, the pair could not maneuver the boat all the way to the plane to aid any survivors. They chose to jump into the chilly, waist-deep water and then waded through mire and briars and branches to the demolished craft.
There they found Lt. Mayer, the pilot, giving first aid to the young passenger laid out on one wing. Midshipman Billiam appeared battered and in shock, but by some miracle the pilot was mostly unscathed. Soon another boat bearing the congressmen and his New Bern compatriots arrived followed shortly by a third vessel with Fred Sutton of Kinston and Dennis Lilly of Bridgeton. All went to work retrieving the injured man and the pilot. The survivors, along with their equipment and baggage, were loaded in the boats for transport back to the camp.
As the flotilla approached the dock, all on board witnessed a Marine rescue helicopter sent from Cherry Point touching down at the camp. Transported to the air station, the pilot was treated and released from the Naval dispensary and the passenger was admitted for treatment and observation.
(Details gleaned from the Carteret News-Times, March 31, 1950)
by Edward Ellis, Special Correspondent
Eddie Ellis is the author of New Bern History 101 and other works about Craven County’s rich heritage. He can be reached at flexspace2@aol.com.
More at edwardellis.com