Every year a donor receives the next point of the Scout Law on a new patch to add to their collection.  The Buffalo Trail Council’s Scout Law series will include twelve different patches with twelve different images significant to the history of our council and the area that it encompasses.

The first of the new series, “Trustworthy”, featured an image of a P-40 Warhawk airplane, and “Loyal” featured the white buffalo.  The image chosen for 2007 is that of a Cessna UC-78 airplane. 

The UC-78, also known as the “Bamboo Bomber” because of its wooden framework, was used extensively during WWII as a multi-engine training plane for bomber pilots.  Most of the cadets who trained in this plane went on to fly B-17’s and B-25’s in combat. 

Pecos, Texas was home to one five new training fields established in Texas in 1942.  Pecos Army Air Field was designated as both a basic and an advanced pilot school for twin-engine aircraft.  Many of the planes used for training here were the UC-78.  During the 4 years that the field was active, over 40,000 pilots were trained there. 

On the afternoon of November 17, 1944, a seemingly routine training flight took off from PAAF at 4:13 PM.  It was a cold and cloudy day, perfect conditions for an instrument training lesson in low visibility conditions.  Unfortunately, only15 minutes after take-off, radio communications with the airplane were lost.
Searches were conducted for the plane, and it ended up being discovered by two gentlemen hunting near the Duncan ranch, Mr. Killmer of Pecos, and Mr. Strain, a local rancher.  Unfortunately, both occupants of this training flight were found to have perished in the crash and the plane was a total loss.  Just three years later, the property the plane crash was discovered on, would be purchased by a local Boy Scout council, and would become the camp we all know and love:  Buffalo Trail Scout Ranch.

Return to Buffalo Trail Scout Ranch