One of the ones I remember well, and is still a mystery to us.
25 years ago this month on the 2nd, A-10A 79-0215 of the 355th Fighter Wing / 357th Fighter Squadron broke formation southwest of Three Points, AZ and headed out of northeast Arizona and into southern Colorado, impacting Gold Dust Peak, very high up in the New York Mountains southwest of Vail, Colorado. Capt Craig D Button having perished after inexplicably leaving his training flight southwest of Tucson. 6 x live Mk82 500lb GP slick bombs still unaccounted for to this day, having been jettisoned inflight to somewhere unknown.
The 6 x Mk82s were jettisoned safe, as the arming wires weren’t found with the wreckage of the racks (they were parent mounted) and the arming wire retaining solinoids on the bottom of the racks were open, indicating that they went with the bombs and still safing the fuzes…..pretty sure they were 904/905 wired. No low or high order detonations in the area were picked up by the earthquake sensing equipment at Northern Arizona University. Interestingly, he supposedly flew low level, 300-500 AGL on a routing taking him up from west of Picacho Peak, north/northeast through Coolidge and its airport and just east of the former Williams AFB, over Gold Canyon and east Apache Junction, and out over the lakes. Yet, no one on the ground saw or reported seeing a very low flying A-10 in areas where they would never normally be seen. It was thought that Button may have jettisoned the bombs in Apache or Roosevelt lakes, but searches there did not turn them up. In 2002, i took 15 days of leave from my squadron at DM to go up to north-central AZ along the mogollon rim area, as the 400,000 acre Rodeo-Chediski fire was burning and I was running a wildland engine truck crew on that fire (had my fire contract business even back then). At the briefing, we were warned to be careful of unburned or currently-burning areas of the wildfire, for the possibility of missing 500lb bombs that could possibly have been dropped there 5 years prior. Nothing ever detonated during that fire, and the 6 x Mk82 slicks, are still missing to this day.
Timing wise, the incident had some other potential concerns at the time. The week after Button disappeared, and once it had been figured out where the jet had actually gone, north into Colorado but was still missing; was when concerns on possible intent emerged. The third week of April, two weeks after the A-10 had gone missing, was when the trial for Oklahoma city federal building bomber Timothy McVeigh was supposed to begin. That trial venue had been moved from Oklahoma City, to Denver. Some concern at the time was whether Button had been hired by some militia group to bomb the federal courthouse in Denver, and was the A-10 being staged/hidden at some small airfield or even makeshift site. Since the A-10 was fully self contained, requiring no ground support for startup and launch….no ladders, start carts, starting air….none needed, and since the 6 x Mk82s were already installed and ready, and even the 30mm TP rounds while non-explosive, could still do serious damage; everything was there and ready for a possibility such as this, combined with a phone call that was never IDd. The thought that an A-10 could show up from somewhere to the Denver Fed courthouse and wreak havoc, was considered, and obviously never occurred. Rumor was the Buckley guard (Colorado Air National Guard) was notified of the possibility and to potentially be ready with armed F-16s, but I’ve never heard that confirmed.
Button’s parents were Jehova Witness members, and apparently didn’t approve of him being in the military due to religious beliefs, wanted him to get out. But the pesky ADSC (required service commitment) he still had wouldn’t allow that. His girlfriend in TX apparently broke up with him an evening or two prior. The night prior, he had had a phone convo with both her, and for a couple of hours with someone who has never been IDd.
Even after all of these considerations, theories, and investigative leads, all of which have lead to dead ends (no pun intended); the real reason for why Capt Craig D Button left his mission post-air refueling as dash-3 of the formation on 2 April 1997, squawked standby, headed northeast, jettisoned his ordnance, and flew into Colorado……the real reason rests only with Craig Button. Whatever internal demons he was facing at the time, to which this was the only escape from them that he could think of, only Craig Button will ever know; and Craig D Button took those demons to his grave 14,000’ up in the New York Mountains.
Rest easy brother. You’re still missed.
25 years ago this month on the 2nd, A-10A 79-0215 of the 355th Fighter Wing / 357th Fighter Squadron broke formation southwest of Three Points, AZ and headed out of northeast Arizona and into southern Colorado, impacting Gold Dust Peak, very high up in the New York Mountains southwest of Vail, Colorado. Capt Craig D Button having perished after inexplicably leaving his training flight southwest of Tucson. 6 x live Mk82 500lb GP slick bombs still unaccounted for to this day, having been jettisoned inflight to somewhere unknown.
The 6 x Mk82s were jettisoned safe, as the arming wires weren’t found with the wreckage of the racks (they were parent mounted) and the arming wire retaining solinoids on the bottom of the racks were open, indicating that they went with the bombs and still safing the fuzes…..pretty sure they were 904/905 wired. No low or high order detonations in the area were picked up by the earthquake sensing equipment at Northern Arizona University. Interestingly, he supposedly flew low level, 300-500 AGL on a routing taking him up from west of Picacho Peak, north/northeast through Coolidge and its airport and just east of the former Williams AFB, over Gold Canyon and east Apache Junction, and out over the lakes. Yet, no one on the ground saw or reported seeing a very low flying A-10 in areas where they would never normally be seen. It was thought that Button may have jettisoned the bombs in Apache or Roosevelt lakes, but searches there did not turn them up. In 2002, i took 15 days of leave from my squadron at DM to go up to north-central AZ along the mogollon rim area, as the 400,000 acre Rodeo-Chediski fire was burning and I was running a wildland engine truck crew on that fire (had my fire contract business even back then). At the briefing, we were warned to be careful of unburned or currently-burning areas of the wildfire, for the possibility of missing 500lb bombs that could possibly have been dropped there 5 years prior. Nothing ever detonated during that fire, and the 6 x Mk82 slicks, are still missing to this day.
Timing wise, the incident had some other potential concerns at the time. The week after Button disappeared, and once it had been figured out where the jet had actually gone, north into Colorado but was still missing; was when concerns on possible intent emerged. The third week of April, two weeks after the A-10 had gone missing, was when the trial for Oklahoma city federal building bomber Timothy McVeigh was supposed to begin. That trial venue had been moved from Oklahoma City, to Denver. Some concern at the time was whether Button had been hired by some militia group to bomb the federal courthouse in Denver, and was the A-10 being staged/hidden at some small airfield or even makeshift site. Since the A-10 was fully self contained, requiring no ground support for startup and launch….no ladders, start carts, starting air….none needed, and since the 6 x Mk82s were already installed and ready, and even the 30mm TP rounds while non-explosive, could still do serious damage; everything was there and ready for a possibility such as this, combined with a phone call that was never IDd. The thought that an A-10 could show up from somewhere to the Denver Fed courthouse and wreak havoc, was considered, and obviously never occurred. Rumor was the Buckley guard (Colorado Air National Guard) was notified of the possibility and to potentially be ready with armed F-16s, but I’ve never heard that confirmed.
Button’s parents were Jehova Witness members, and apparently didn’t approve of him being in the military due to religious beliefs, wanted him to get out. But the pesky ADSC (required service commitment) he still had wouldn’t allow that. His girlfriend in TX apparently broke up with him an evening or two prior. The night prior, he had had a phone convo with both her, and for a couple of hours with someone who has never been IDd.
Even after all of these considerations, theories, and investigative leads, all of which have lead to dead ends (no pun intended); the real reason for why Capt Craig D Button left his mission post-air refueling as dash-3 of the formation on 2 April 1997, squawked standby, headed northeast, jettisoned his ordnance, and flew into Colorado……the real reason rests only with Craig Button. Whatever internal demons he was facing at the time, to which this was the only escape from them that he could think of, only Craig Button will ever know; and Craig D Button took those demons to his grave 14,000’ up in the New York Mountains.
Rest easy brother. You’re still missed.
