Final Patrol: Lee R. Schwarting

 Regarding the recent notification from Troop C "Retired Trooper Lee R. Schwarting, who retired 1985, passed away in October 2020, the family was unable to do a service due to COVID.   There will be a celebration of life at the August 1st, 2021. Light refreshments, iced tea, coffee and water will be served.
Lee and I bunked together at the state fair in the late '60s.  He related that he was stationed at SP Norwich when a small plane crashed into the Norwich station.  At the time there was a senior trooper and his new recruit at the station.  (I don't recall whether Lee was one of the two, or just heard the story after the fact.)  I had read about the incident in The Trooper magazine, but Lee added a few details.
The plane burst into flames, so the senior trooper grabbed the station fire extinguisher and knocked down the flames, but emptied the extinguisher before the fire was out, so he sent the recruit inside to grab all the car keys and he subsequently went through all of the fire extinguishers in the car trunks, but the fire was still not completely out.
The plane had torn down the utility pole and wires in front of the station, so the senior man instructed the recruit to start the emergency generator.  (Perhaps to run the station's well pump?)  The recruit, who was just beginning his first day in the field, replied "Generator?"  The senior trooper scrapped that idea and used a car radio to ask Sidney call the fire department, since the phone lines were out too.
I later talked to a GE radio repair guy from Dimmick's Electronics (later KJBL) who happened to be working on a station console in Troop C when the incident happened, so he heard both sides of the following transmissions:  He added a few points Lee had, quite understandably, forgotten.
NORWICHSIDNEY!!!
silence
NORWICHSIDNEY!!!
..... Sidney on Norwich.
NORWICHSIDNEY! APLANEJUSTHITTHE"F"INGSTATION!  THETHING'SONFIRE!
......Sidney to Norwich.......................................repeat?
NORWICHSIDNEY! APLANEJUSTHITTHE"F"INGSTATION!  THETHING'SONFIRE!
......Sidney to Norwich, would you like us to call the fire department?
After a minute or two:
......Sidney to Norwich.  The captain wants to know the tail number of the aircraft.
NORWICHSIDNEY!  THE "F"INGTHING'SONFIRE!
.....Sidney 528.
(Having been a C Trooper during the twilight days of Communications Tech Sergeant C. H. Carpenter, Shield 528, served 1927 - 1969, I can imagine his reply might have been a totally unemotional "Sidney station test, all zones; KED 891 to 99; last item, Item #2, time 2:55 p.m., Sidney 528")