One tearful day this week, Wilkes-Barre waved goodbye to a troop train carrying the men of the 109th Field Artillery Battalion, National Guard. They were Wilkes-Barre’s own—all men from the anthracite districts of Pennsylvania’s Wyoming Valley. The train headed west for Camp Atterbury, Ind. with 700 men and officers.
Early next morning, five miles from Newcomerstown, Ohio, trouble developed in the air brake system. In a murky fog, the troop train ground to a stop. Out of the early morning roared the Pennsylvania’s crack twin diesel Spirit of St. Louis. The first unit of the diesel hurled the rear coach of the troop train in the air, sheared the second car to floor level, hurtled into a creek. The second unit derailed a third car. Two cars of the Spirit of St. Louis plunged from the track.
Among the 240 passengers aboard the Spirit of St. Louis there were only minor injuries. But aboard the troop train the dead and dying were trapped in a mass of twisted wreckage. Wyoming Valley got the heartbreaking news of its 109th Battalion: upwards of 30 men had been killed, more than 60 had been injured.
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