LAKEHURST – It may have been the most well-known airship disaster in history, but the Hindenburg’s destruction on the airfield of what was then, the Lakehurst Naval Air Station was a reminder of man’s indomitable spirit to move higher in the sky.
During the 84th anniversary of the airship disaster held at the airfield site at Joint Base McGuire-Fort Dix-Lakehurst, Captain William M. Sherrod, commanding officer Naval Support Activity Lakehurst spoke about that spirit of aerial exploration.
The ceremony proved as much an acknowledgement of man’s continued perseverance to break new barriers in air and space as it was look back to the past and the fateful event that took the lives of crew members and passengers of the DLZ-129. The event was hosted by the Navy Lakehurst Historical Society and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.
Captain Sherrod recalled the loss of another airship, the USS Akron which operated from 1931 to 1933. It was destroyed in a thunderstorm off the Jersey coast on April 4, 1933 killing 73 of the 76 crewmen and passengers and involved the greatest loss of life in any airship crash.
“It was a national disaster according to President (Franklin D.) Roosevelt. Whereas ships can be replaced, the nation can ill afford to lose such men who died upholding to the very end the finest traditions of the Naval service,” Sherrod said.
“Despite these dangers, known to man, why do they persist? Up, up along delirious burning blue atop the wind-swept heights of easy grace…the sanctity of space, I put out my hand and touch the face of God. That is why we fly, that is why we risk and that is why we dare. Whether they operate the machines, maintain the machines, design the machines or they ride the machines all who dare are remembered here today.”
The guest speaker of the evening was Dr. Horst Schirmer who has frequently appeared at the annual anniversary ceremonies. His father was an engineer for the Hindenburg. Prior to the ceremony he told The Manchester Times, “I once took a flight on the Hindenburg. I was born in 1931 and the Hindenburg was in its final phase and in 1936.”
Schirmer’s good friend “Hash” Newman who drove him once again from Baltimore Maryland to Lakehurst, said, “this is our 15th time. I met Horst years and years ago and we’ve been friends ever since. I’m retired from the Army Corps of Engineers.
“In our country now, history is demeaned. People don’t care so much about what happened with the Titanic because it had nothing to do with us and they dismiss history,” Newman said.
During the invocation, Chaplain Hardy Owens said, “while others may observe a barren field full of ghosts, we witness a testimony towards something quite different. Lord open our eyes tonight to see a pallet decorated before us filled with the tapestry of honor, courage and commitment where service members have honed their skills, risked their lives to pass along a legacy that refuses to surrender.”
“We have representation of each service present, a hallmark to our identity as a joint base,” Captain Sherrod noted. A representative of each member of the armed services presented a wreath in remembrance to those lost during the Hindenburg tragedy as well as commemorating U.S. Navy and U.S. Army airship loses and those fallen troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Flags of each branch of the military flew behind the wreath presentation site including, for the first time, the U.S. Space Force during this year’s ceremony.
Navy Lakehurst Historical Society President Carl Jablonski read the names of those lost during the Hindenburg disaster.
“Eighty-four years ago, this field was ablaze. The imagery, the horror and humanity were the defining images of an era and of our community,” Captain Sherrod said. He added that along with those being remembered from the Hindenburg, the day’s ceremony was also meant to remember “all intrepid airmen who dare slip the surly bonds of earth and dance the skies on laughter-silvered wings,” quoting a the poem “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee, a Canadian airman who died in a in-flight collision in 1941.
“Since the dawn of man, we’ve looked up to the heavens and dared to dance among the stars. Over 118 years ago two brothers tasted human powered flight on a beach in North Carolina but before that man had broken the bonds of earth through lighter than air. Man’s insatiable curiosity drove us to amazing innovation,” Captain Sherrod added.
He noted that the borough’s Lakehurst Naval Air base was “the birthplace of the U.S. Navy’s foray into lighter than air aviation. For 100 years we’ve been part of this community and part of this community’s history.
“Not just the Hindenburg but years before the Navy’s first lighter than air machine that crashed in 1918. It was R38, British manufactured and during a test flight crashed off the coast of England and 44 folks died. As aviators we learn from those mishaps and the sacrifices of others,” Captain Sherrod added.
Dr. Schirmer said, “I am almost 90 years old but I saw the Hindenburg being built in Germany. My father Dr. Max Schirmer was very much instrumental in the development and its design. I went to school with the children of many of the crew of the Hindenburg.
Schirmer said that the Hindenburg’s high landing position as opposed the usual low landing method may have contributed to its demise along with weather and the crew’s hurried posture. “A sharp turn likely caused a ripped, busted wire which hit one of the gas bags, gas bag number four at the rear of the ship. This allowed for the escape of hydrogen – not helium – to mix with 21% of oxygen in the air. It took about four minutes for this to be a perfect mix of explanation for the fire that broke out in the tail of the ship.”
