Stories I ran upon this...in case anyone is researching this name...very interesting. Does anyone know Ruben Vaughan's family? By: Jim Webre, Courier staff March 30, 2001 I don't know why, but a lot of military history -- and fabulous military history -- came my way in the past two weeks. I want to share some of it with you, and maybe get your help in locating a few people. Resting in Rabon Chapel Cemetery outside Montgomery is Ruben L. Vaughan, who died June 14, 1943, near an Australian township called Baker Creek. Vaughan was one of 35 passengers and six crew members aboard a B-17C making its way from Mackay, Queensland, Australia, back to Port Moresby, Papua, New Guinea, a return from R and R afforded the military men fighting the Japanese during the early years of World War II. Vaughan is one of several generations of American heros and veterans from wars and conflicts dating back to the Texas war for independence from Mexico. There are so many stories buried in the cemeteries of Texas, especially those in Montgomery and most of Texas' oldest communities. Sometimes, I think the history of our state and our heritage could be extrapolated from the headstones I have seen. Flu epidemics in the early 1900s, wars and famine, accidents and simply old age. And children who got sick and died when there was no such thing as CHPS and Medicaid. But the story of how Ruben L. Vaughan died is a piece of history that leads back to Montgomery County and a lot of other places. Teddy Hanks of Wichita Falls can tell you about it. On behalf of the Bakers Creek Memorial Association, which is dedicated in part to locating the survivors of the men who perished in that B-17C. "Most of the families of the 35 passengers aboard the makeshift transport were never informed how and where their loved ones died," Hanks said. Basically, the United States Army Air Force, the air arm of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's Pacific campaign, were permitted to send a few men every so often to Australia for a respite. Guys were given 10-day leaves to travel to Mackay. And one of the planes used to transport men and cargo was an older model B-17 bomber that was unfit for combat duty and, therefore, had been fitted out as a transport. The B-17C carrying Vaughan and the rest of the guys left Mackay at about zero six hundred hours (6 a.m. for you non-military types), and within a few minutes, it had crashed near the community of Bakers Creek. Two men were still alive, one in critical condition. Foye Kenneth Roberts survived, while the more seriously injured man died. Roberts was from Quanah, Texas, up in Hardeman County, which is a place I used to cover when I worked the regional desk in Wichita Falls. Roberts is now 80 years old or so and confined to a nursing home in the seat of Wichita County, where he has been since 1946 because of his debilitating injuries. Roberts and the other dead soldiers and airmen were disintered in 1949 and brought home. Hanks is trying to find them based on records obtained from the Graves Reg istration Service of the National Archives. He's looking for a lot of people, and the relatives of Ruben L. Vaughn are among them. If you are related to Ruben L. Vaughn, or if you know someone who might be related to him, call Teddy Hanks at (940) 855-0602, or write him at 7585 Burkburnett Road, Wichita Falls, Texas 76305-6684. ... Montgomery County's own Bob Feldman is a survivor of the last warship sunk by enemy action in World War II. He's having a reunion for other survivors of that perilous culmination this weekend at his home in April Sound. It's a four-day event that will include a paddle-wheel boat ride on Lake Conroe, visits to NASA and other neat stuff. ... Bob Quinn, the other April Sound resident I told you about recently, will have a book signing for his novel Damon at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 1310 Lake Woodlands Drive, in, of course, The Woodlands, from 7-8 p.m. April 7. It's a great book about a young man who joins the Navy while only 16 years old and comes of age in the service. A lot of guys did this, including my Dad, rest his soul. The story is worth a read. If you enlisted in the armed services back when it was still possible to do so, you gotta buy this book. Heck, buy it anyway. Bob is the author of other works as well, including a murder mystery. Jim Webre covers unincorporated Montgomery County and its smaller communities. If it's not Conroe or The Woodlands, it's his. Write him at 100 Ave. A, Conroe, TX 77301; call (936) 756-6671, ext. 246; or e-mail him at courier@lcc.net. ©The Courier 2002