New Hampshire
Former military aviators remember NH’s flying Aces with ties to the Seacoast
SEACOAST — May 8, 2025 is VE (Victory in Europe) Day. It marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. June 25, 2025, marks the 75th anniversary of the day the Korean War began.
Granite State Flight #53, Order of Daedalians, a group of former and current military aviators in New Hampshire and Maine, remembered NH’s flying Aces recently. Five of the aces have ties to Seacoast-area communities. To be an Ace, a pilot must shoot down at least five enemy aircraft.
New Hampshire’s highest Ace in the Korean War, and the top American Ace overall in Korea, was Captain Joseph C. McConnell, Jr. of Dover.
He also was the first triple jet Ace with 16 aircraft kills. He is America’s highest jet ace.
Of air combat, Captain McConnell is quoted as saying “It’s the teamwork out here that counts. The lone wolf stuff is out.”
After Korea, he was assigned to flight testing and died after reportedly experiencing flight control problems in an aircraft. He was 32.
Lieutenant Colonel Norman J. “Bud” Fortier, USAF (Ret), who taught in Dover and Epsom public schools after WWII, had 5.83 aerial victories over Europe.
In 1949, he flew 38 cargo missions during the Berlin Airlift. He died in 2005 and is buried in Raymond C. Wilson Memorial Garden in Gilford.
He authored An Ace of the Eighth: An American Fighter Pilot’s Air War in Europe.
Brig. Gen. Harrison R. Thyng, USAF (Ret) of Laconia is buried in Riverview Cemetery in Barnstead. He fought in both wars. He is only one of six men who became Aces in both conventional and jet aircraft and is one of only seven Americans to become an Ace in two wars. He had 15 kills.
New Hampshire’s last World War II Ace with local ties was Captain Frederick O. Trafton, Jr. of New Durham. He had five aerial kills.
After the war, Captain Trafton joined the Army and served in Vietnam. He is buried at Arlington.
New Hampshire
2 killed, 1 seriously injured in NH crash
Two people are dead and another person has serious injuries following a crash Friday in Rumney, New Hampshire.
The Rumney Fire Department says it responded to Route 25 just after 1:30 p.m. for a motor vehicle crash with entrapment. Crews, including from Plymouth-Fire Rescue and the Wentworth Fire Department, arrived on scene to find two vehicles in the road that appeared to have been involved in a head-on collision.
The driver from one vehicle was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries, the fire department said. The driver and a passenger in the second vehicle were both pronounced dead on scene.
The victims’ names have not been released at this time.
Route 25 was closed for approximately five hours for an on-scene investigation and clean up, the fire department said.
It’s unclear what caused the fatal crash. The Rumney Police Department is investigating.
New Hampshire
Fireball spotted streaking over towns in southeast New Hampshire: video
An eagle-eyed photographer captured the moment a shining fireball cut across the sky in southeast New Hampshire early Saturday evening.
Rob Wright, a professional photographer based in New Hampshire, shared dash camera footage of the suspected meteor — which he called a “bright green boldie” — blazing straight downwards while he was cruising through Portsmouth.
“That was one of the best I’ve seen and likely the best I’ve ever caught on camera,” Wright boasted on Facebook.
Wright was approaching a traffic circle in the coastal town when a pulsing yellow light appeared in the sky. It tracked downwards in a straight line and released a brighter spurt of light before disappearing entirely, all in the span of eight seconds, according to the video.
Others in Nashua and Londonderry, both located southwest of Portsmouth and closer to the Massachusetts border, told WMUR that they also saw the suspected meteor.
Several other highlighted sightings around the same time in Dover, Bedford, Rindge, Hooksett and Jaffrey, which are all within a 90-mile radius of Portsmouth, according to the American Meteor Society.
Locals who follow Wright’s work reported seeing the fireball, too. One woman who also lives in Portsmouth commented that she “thought it must have been a firework.”
It’s unclear what exactly the fireball was.
Meteorites present similarly to a fireball when they’re plummeting from orbit — but leave a more obvious impact.
In August, a 3-foot meteor splintered in the air while it was flying over Georgia and left fragments scattered all over Newton County. The explosion caused a sonic boom equivalent to 20 tons of TNT exploding at once.
Pieces of the meteor were found all over the county, including one that crashed through the roof of a home.
Over the summer in 2024, a meteor disintegrated about 30 miles above Midtown Manhattan. The force shook parts of New York City, rattling midday commuters.
New Hampshire
Firefighters battle large blaze at home near NH’s Loon Mountain
Firefighters from multiple northern New Hampshire communities helped battle a blaze at a home near Loon Mountain on Saturday night.
Campton-Thornton Fire Rescue said in a Facebook post Sunday morning that they responded to the fire on Crooked Mountain Road in Lincoln around 7 p.m. Several other area departments also responded and helped shuttle water to the scene from a site in nearby Woodstock.
No one was home at the time and no firefighters were injured battling the blaze. Fire crews cleared the scene around 4 a.m.
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