Flight 629 Memorial completion date November 1, 2025

On November 1, 1955, the first ever plane bombing over US soil for a commercial airline flight occurred, killing all 44 persons on board. It was a national disaster unlike anything continental US experienced and shocked the entire nation. Exploding over six square miles over recently harvested beet fields in Weld County, Colorado, the blast was so powerful, that people could see it for 20 miles. Farmers and citizens rushed onto the fields before the FBI and Civil Aviation Board could arrive. What they encountered would haunt them forever.

Without waiting for any government entity, these courageous farmers, including teenagers and mothers, businesses, veterans, volunteer firemen and policemen began a massive search for bodies in pitch darkness with no electricity or phone lines.

Johnson Corners, the only truck stop between Denver and Wyoming, was among local restaurants that continually fed the close to 500 people on the fields. The Longmont American Legion from a bordering town ran coffee around the clock to the laborers. Two Catholic priests quietly prayed over each victim.

Before the National Guard was called, these brave citizens labored through the night – covering each victim with any blanket or coats they could find. Each body needed a guard to prevent looters who were already stealing anything they could from the victims and strewn luggage. Gawkers, photographers, news media flocked, impeding the search and rescue mission.

Greeley Armory, Greeley Colorado, became the resting place of the victims before each one was sent to their families for funeral services.

Such was the scene in that quiet, rural, farming Colorado community.

Meanwhile, the families of the victims would be forever changed, left traumatized to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives as best as they could. Their loved ones, some fathers and mothers, would never return, never to be seen, hugged, or kissed again.

The perpetrator, through the diligent work of the FBI, confessed his crime and within 16 months received the death penalty, with no remorse for killing his mother nor the 43 others on board. This evil act impacted our nation: the FBI, the court system, the media, the aviation industry, and more.

Because this so traumatized both the victims’ families and the Weld County-Denver area, this event was buried after trial, rarely to be ever mentioned as the first plane to be bombed over US soil.

Thus, to this day, there has been no memorial honoring the passengers killed nor has there been anything to commend these first responding citizens on that field that night and the days and months ahead in the clean-up, which we call the Unsung Heroes.

November 1, 2025 will be the 70th anniversary and November 1, 2030 will be the 75th anniversary.

Therefore, the Flight 629 and Unsung Heroes Across America Committee (5013c) believes it time that this history be preserved.

It is time for the passengers who lost their loved ones be honored with a memorial that will bring healing not just for their descendants, but for anyone who has lost a loved one.

And, it is time to commemorate the heroic efforts of the hundreds of citizens who rallied to that field that night, the faceless, unsung heroes who, to quote a living surviving first responder of that night said, “We only did what we had to do.”

Therefore, an Unsung Heroes Across America Garden is being developed with a fourfold purpose: the preserve history, to honor the passengers killed, and to give tribute to the historic legacy of Weld County, and to provide a national tribute for the Unsung Heroes Across America who in their daily lives become the unsung heroes in their own communities whenever tragedy strikes.

This healing, meditative garden plans to include a perpetuating, ongoing component to encourage current and future generations to be the unsung heroes in their own communities.

The national focus for the Unsung Heroes Across America hopes to spur on the American spirit: Americans helping others as we have done since our founding as a nation, what Americans do best.

We will need to raise approximately $1 million for the initial phases of this Garden, to be located within the vicinity of the fields in which the tragedy occurred.