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September 2017
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boatingonthehudson.com
Clutching a bundle of American flags to his
chest, Dave Rocco made his way up Mount
Beacon, battling through the 90-degree heat
and pain from his titanium knees.
Mr. Rocco, 60, negotiated the rocky path
blazed 72 years ago by rescuers who hacked
their way up the mountain following a plane
crash some 1,100 feet up in the Hudson
Highlands, a few miles east of Beacon, N.Y., a
75-minute drive north of New York City.
Mr. Rocco hopes to turn the rocky passage
into a path of recognition to the place where
a Navy transport plane went down in the
rain and fog on Nov. 11, 1945, killing all six
servicemen aboard.
“You can still see the scorched earth — it’s
still bare after 72 years,” Mr. Rocco said of
the crash site, which with some scattered
wreckage was still visible on the forest floor
along Fishkill Ridge.
Mr. Rocco and some friends have been hiking
to this wooded spot in recent years to tend it
as a memorial to the victims, who included
Commodore Dixie Kiefer, 49, a decorated
Naval hero who served in both world wars.
Commodore Kiefer emerged as one of the
most famous commanders in World War
II, and received the Distinguished Service
Medal from the Secretary of the Navy, James
V. Forrestal, a Beacon native who nicknamed
Commodore Kiefer “the indestructible man,”
for his having survived close brushes with
death in battle.
A few months after receiving the award,
Commodore Kiefer perished on this ridge on
a routine flight.
“Imagine surviving both World Wars and
dying in a crash — ain’t that a kick in the ass,”
Mr. Rocco said.
At the site, Mr. Rocco has draped large flags
from tree branches and stuck small ones
into the ground. Over the years, hikers have
gathered small parts of the plane wreckage
and left them at the base of a tree that bears
a small plaque and a laminated newspaper
article. Included in the article is a now faded
photo of Commodore Kiefer in dress uniform
with his arm still in a cast from shrapnel
wounds incurred during Japanese kamikaze
attacks on the aircraft carrier Ticonderoga in
1945.
Mr. Rocco, a former carpenter for
the New York City Housing Authority,
has dedicated himself to drawing
attention not only to Commodore
Kiefer, but the other servicemen
who died on Mount Beacon on
Armistice Day in 1945, a predecessor
to Veterans Day.
Memories of the crash have faded
into the domain of local lore and
some military buffs, said Mr. Rocco,
who hopes to change that. He helped
create a group to honor the victims
and has led numerous hikes to the
site. He has given presentations to
local groups and found people with
connections to the crash and victims.
He is raising funds to have a memorial
installed near Mount Beacon’s base.
“Most of all, I just want their story
to be told,” said Mr. Rocco, who spent
more than three years gathering
research material on the crash
through libraries, historical societies
and government archives.
Mr. Rocco said he attended a
reunion of surviving sailors who
served under Commodore Kiefer,
“and every time I asked them about
Dixie Kiefer, tears came down their
faces.”
Mr. Rocco is no writer, but in
January he happened to pick up
a book by Don Keith, an author
in Alabama who specializes in
military history and themes. Mr.
Keith’s books have been turned into
movies, including “Firing Point,” a
2012 submarine thriller that is being
made into “Hunter Killer,” a film
starring Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman
and Billy Bob Thornton.
Mr. Rocco contacted Mr. Keith and
interested him in the crash and
the story of Commodore Kiefer, a
graduate of the Naval Academy
who suffered 10 major wounds in
Dave Rocco on Mount Beacon at the site
where a a Navy transport plane crashed in
1945, killing all six servicemen aboard.
photo:HirokoMasuike/The New York Times
This article originally
appeared in the the
New York Times, JULY
25, 2017
by
Corey Kilgannon
Lost in theWoods, the 1945
Crash Site of a Navy Hero