With their ideal climate and sparsely populated land, Arizona and the southwestern states were used extensively to train Air Force and Navy pilots. The height of this training took place from World War II thru the 1960’s. With the many air bases training thousands of pilots came many mishaps. There were over 500 aircraft accidents in Arizona alone during WWII, and over another 600 by the end of the 1960’s. Fortunately, many of the crews were able to bail out or survive the crash, but tragically, there were many that did not.

Over the last 15 years I have located over 260 crash sites in the deserts and mountains of the southwest. As an avid hiker and vintage military aviation historian, I enjoy looking for old aircraft wrecks so I can preserve their history by photographing and documenting these historical aviation remnants of the past. I find that each crash site, as well as the pilots or crewmen I am fortunate to track down, has a unique and intriguing story.

Enjoy some of their stories in this little-known chapter of aviation history.