{"id":397,"date":"2023-11-14T14:11:53","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T14:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/?p=397"},"modified":"2024-11-14T17:44:31","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T17:44:31","slug":"a-different-perspective-on-the-marshall-plane-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/2023\/11\/14\/a-different-perspective-on-the-marshall-plane-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"A different perspective on the Marshall plane crash"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"Each year on Nov. 14, the victims of the Marshall University plane crash are remembered. Hundreds of people gather around the Memorial Fountain on campus to pause and reflect while the water is silenced and the names of all 75 are read aloud. The feelings of loss, love, community and enduring commitment to one another are palpable.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo doubt, grief is a major part of the story, but there\u2019s much more to it than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Craig T. Greenlee, who will serve as this year\u2019s keynote speaker for the ceremony, would have been on that fateful DC-9 flight had he not made the decision to step away from football to focus on his education as a sophomore in October 1969. He has never attended a fountain ceremony until now.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI made the mistake of focusing strictly on the sadness and sorrow of the night Marshall\u2019s plane went down,\u201d Craig said. \u201cI know for sure I would have been a passenger.\u201d<\/p>\n

But\u2014sorrow and sadness surrounding the crash was only one part of the story and what Craig experienced.<\/p>\n

\n\t “I believe it\u2019s important to look back and understand what was happening on the Marshall campus and other college campuses around the country. This was a time of unrest in America.”<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t- Craig T. Greenlee<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n

\u201cI believe it\u2019s important to look back and understand what was happening on the Marshall campus and other college campuses around the country. This was a time of unrest in America. The civil rights movement was still going strong. Protests over the Vietnam War were commonplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

That unrest hit a fever pitch on Nov. 13, just one day before the crash, as fights broke out on campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prime concern was all about protecting yourself from harm and danger,\u201d Craig said. \u201cYou got the impression that there would be a confrontation or you would have to retaliate to defend yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe following night, emotions were vastly different. The sheer shock of losing so many people that you knew personally was mind-boggling. Deep sorrow and devastation was the order of the day. At that juncture, those feelings of anger and apprehension were replaced by an overwhelming sadness that totally engulfed a campus and its surrounding communities. Racial differences didn\u2019t matter anymore. Grief grabbed hold of every heart and soul connected to Marshall University. The fights from the day before became a foggy memory.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"November<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no question in my mind that the plane crash averted what could have been a bloody race riot at Marshall,\u201d Craig said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the story he set out to tell when he penned his book \u201cNovember Ever After: A memoir of tragedy and triumph in the wake of the 1970 Marshall football plane crash.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t “The hurt and devastation was all-encompassing.”<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t- Craig T. Greenlee<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n

\u201cThe situation was just that volatile, but the crash was so shocking, any beef between Blacks and whites became meaningless. The hurt and devastation was all-encompassing. The only things that mattered were finding ways to console one another and figure out what we would do about attending as many funerals as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Craig<\/p>\n

Now, 53 years later, Craig will experience his own full-circle Marshall moment. He will take the stage at his first-ever fountain ceremony, to speak about the unimaginable loss that gripped the community, but ultimately binds the hearts of the Marshall family together forever.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou come to understand that life is truly a gift and that nothing is guaranteed. Even so, there\u2019s every reason to enjoy the life you have\u2014embrace it\u2014and make the most of your skills and abilities. You learn that it\u2019s important to continue moving forward, even in the face of adversity. The aftermath is where the victories are won.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each year on Nov. 14, the victims of the Marshall University plane crash are remembered. Hundreds of people gather around the Memorial Fountain on campus to pause and reflect while the water is silenced and the names of all 75 are read aloud. The feelings of loss, love, community and enduring commitment to one another […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-moments"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":888,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions\/888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}