On Oct. 26, 1978, an Air Force A-7D Corsair II lost power over Tucson. Captain Fredrick Ashler guided the crippled jet toward an empty UA practice field, staying with it until he ejected--moments before it crashed on Highland Avenue near Sixth Street, narrowly missing Mansfeld Middle School and the University.
Leticia Felix Humphrey and her sister, Clarissa Felix, both UA students, were caught in the crash. Leticia died at the scene; Clarissa died shortly after from burns. Six others were injured. Capt. Ashler survived, and deserves to be remembered as a victim too--he did what he could to avoid injuring people below.
I was 21, a medic in the Davis-Monthan ER that day. I remember the alert, the silence when we learned the crash was at the university, then the scramble.
Forty-eight years later, there's still no memorial at the site. I'd like a modest stone placed there, naming Leticia and Clarissa, so two young women who never came home aren't forgotten.
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Don Simpson
East side
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