STUTTGART, Germany - Sixty years ago, an Air Force pilot lost his life in an aircraft crash near the town of Heroldishausen while flying a C-54 Skymaster during the Berlin Airlift. Fifty years later, the residents of the town erected a stone memorial at the accident site to honor the pilot, 1st Lt. Royce Stephens.
Last month, a Stuttgart Boy Scout from Troop 324 traveled the 400 kilometers to the site to bring new life to the memorial.
"After reading how Lieutenant Stephens lost his life while trying to keep the plane steady so his crew and other passengers could jump out, and then physically seeing the memorial last year, and noticing how it lacked life, I thought someone should do something for the pilot's memory ... why not me," said Zechariah Sparrow, who decided that the restoration of the pilot's memorial site would be the right community project to earn his Eagle Scout badge.
The restoration project that Sparrow had designed for the site was a little more than he could do on his own, so he enlisted the help of some close friends and fellow Scouts.
"I got seven friends to help me out, and together we cleaned up the area, laid new stones and gravel, and then planted flowers that will bloom year after year around the memorial," Sparrow said. "It took all day to do, but it was well worth it, and I believe the project really does help preserve the pilot's memory."
To ensure that the town would support a restoration project of their memorial, Sparrow talked with the town's Burgermeister and council.
"They seemed very pleased that we would want to do the project and really gave us a lot of support and encouragement," said Sparrow, the son of Lt. Col. James S. Sparrow, European Command, and an eighth-grade student at Robinson Barracks Elementary/Middle School.
Sparrow's community project will now go in front of a committee of Boy Scout leaders who will decide if it meets the leadership and teamwork requirements of an Eagle Scout project, and then Sparrow himself will face the committee to prove he meets the requirements to be awarded the Eagle Scout rank.
"I have really enjoyed being part of the Boy Scouts," said Sparrow. "Sure, I have been kidded by others, but doing the various requirements of the different Boy Scout badges helped me learn a lot, and there are many things I would not have experienced had I not been a Boy Scout."
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