FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – On Dec. 12, 1985, Amy Gallo was at home on Fort Campbell, expecting to welcome her husband, Staff Sgt. Richard S. Nichols, home from a six-month peacekeeping mission in the Sinai Peninsula.
She did not expect her 2-year-old son to call her over to the television with the news that her husband, along with 256 others, would not be making it home.
Nichols was one of 248 soldiers and eight crew members who lost their lives when Arrow Flight 1285 crashed in Gander, Newfoundland, shortly after takeoff that morning.
“It was our fifth anniversary, actually, and he called me and told me go to the gym, he’d be there in 3 1/2 hours,” Gallo said. “I went to the the gym, and they sent us home and said the plane was late. So I went home and was making cinnamon rolls when my son came in.”
She had just that morning shown her son a map of Newfoundland, explaining to him where Daddy was.
“They put the map on the television; they broke into ‘He-Man,’ to show where the plane had crashed. So, my son came in and said, ‘Daddy is dead, because they said no survivors.’ So my 2-year-old is the one that told me about it, and I went in to watch it and learned that it was true. It was pretty much a nightmare.”
Julia Rutnah was in middle school when she got the news that her brother, Pfc. Paul Bostwick, was on the flight manifest and presumed dead. Bostwick was due to return home a week earlier, but had stayed behind after receiving a promotion – information that he kept from his family as a Christmas surprise.
“We all went back to my sister’s house, and we waited to hear something. They told us to keep the lines open in case somebody missed the airplane. It wasn’t until the next day that we had the two gentleman show up at the door,” said Rutnah.
“It was a bad time. I never in a million years thought something like that would happen.”
Fort Campbell remembers
This weekend, Fort Campbell will hold its 35th anniversary Gander Memorial remembrance ceremony at Fort Campbell.
The ceremony will be held on Saturday, Dec. 12, 9:30 a.m., at the new memorial site, which was dedicated last year.
Due to COVID-19 safety concerns, this year’s event will be by invitation only; however, Fort Campbell plans to livestream the ceremony on the 101st Airborne Division Facebook page.
“This day is now etched into our history, and each year we honor those we lost, and we renew the bond we share with our soldiers, families and with the citizens of Gander to ensure their memories will never be forgotten,” said Maj. Gen. Brian Winski.
Gander monument, a place of memory and healing
Rutnah said the monument, and the memorial services, have given her and others a chance to heal together.
“It has brought a lot of people together. It has helped heal a lot of people,” Rutnah said. “When I went to the 30th (anniversary), there were gentlemen that could not look me in the face, could not stand next to me.”
Those were soldiers who were meant to be on the flight, but for one reason or another weren’t on board when the plane went down.
“They had remorse because they were alive and my brother had been killed,” said Rutnah. “That night that we all met for the first time, there was a lot of crying, a lot of ‘I don’t blame you and my family doesn’t blame you.’ Just reassuring everybody that this was God’s thing. … All those years, they were hurting just as bad as we were. As far as the memorial goes, I think that it is a blessing.”
Gallo said the monument has given families a place to go and remember.
“It’s about the continuation of the memory,” said Gallo. “For a lot of these moms and dads that are in their 80s and 90s, they need that. I don’t know if I always need the memorial service, but I need the memorial. That’s where I go when I need to be near Rick. He’s buried at Fort Donelson, but I always go to the memorial because that’s more him, and it’s on Fort Campbell, and that’s him.”