Rescuers of Victim of ’44 Army Plane Crash Honored

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — The two remaining rescuers of a man stranded by the 1944 crash of an Army bomber on one of Vermont's most famous mountains are being recognized by the Vermont State Police for their actions when they were high school students.

Eighty-six-year-old Peter Mason and 85-year-old Rolland Lafayette were honored Friday at the Statehouse with a search and rescue award.

The two were among a group of Civil Air Patrol cadets pulled out of classes at the Waterbury High School in mid-October 1944 after the B-24 bomber crashed on the eastern side of Camels Hump.

The rescuers found James Wilson, then a 19-year-old crew member in the wreckage near death.

Despite losing his feet and his hands, Wilson went on to become a lawyer in Colorado. He died in 2000.