The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1918-12-16
HE DIED LIKE A HERO

Pinned Under Blazing Airplane,
Sergeant Remington Refused Help
that Would Have Put Another Life
in Peril.
No matter how brave a man may
be, when the abyss of death opens be-
fore him he will grasp at any barrier
he can put between himself and the
chasm, even tho he knows the barrier
will be futile,-unless his courage and
conscientiousness be of the. superior
and superlative kind.
was Sergeant Oliver j. Remington,
who lost his life near Ocala Saturday
afternoon. Denied the satisfaction of
dying on a battlefield, instead endur-
| ing an agonizing death in an obscure
corner of peaceful Florida, he never
theless showed. himself true to the
traditions of that army which no ma
tion has yet been able to defeat.
The airplane for which Sergeant
Remington was mechanician rose
from the landing field east of Ocala
about two o'clock Saturday afternoon,
iuttered a few hundred yards like
wounded bird, came down with
crash, pinning the mechanician under
lit and setting itself on fire. 1t was
then when his pilot and superior of
|ficer, Lieut.. Harris Feast, tried to
drag him out of the wreck that Rem
|ington cried:
"Get back; get back; save yourself,
you can't help me-"
Then the flames from the burning
airplane wrapped him in shroud of
fire, and, we all hope, speedily ended
his suffering.
AS our people all well know, two
iplanes from Dorr Field landed here
Friday afternoon. They were manned
Iby Lieutenants Harris Feast and. C.
F. Carter. Sergeants o. ]. Remington
land c. B. Means. They stopped here,
to survey the town and vicinity, to
see if suitable landing place could
be found to make Ocala a station on
the aerial mail route between Tampa
and Jacksonville They were all fine
young men and were made very well
come by our people. who We'd in ex-
tending courtesy to them.
Having completed their survey,
they decided to make start for the
next point, which we presume would
have been Gainesville. A number of
people were at the field to see them
start Both planes were about the
middle of the field, facing toward
Ocala. The industrial school was
about 500 yards behind them. The
plane manned by Lieut.. Feast and
Sergeant Remington started first. It
ran down the field toward town, made
| a curve, started back toward the
school and began to rise. Those
watching it saw it was having diff
Guilty They saw it go over the row
of trees east of the field, drop sudden
lily behind them and then in a few
seconds column of fire and smoke
| shot up from where it struck.
The other plane, in which were
Lieut.. Carter and Sergeant Means
also started by running down the field
a minute or so after the first place,
but the moment the first plane rose
their practiced ears told them some
thing was wrong. They stopped their
plane before it left the ground. jump
ed out and ran to the help Of their
comrades. With them went all the
spectators, but before they could
come anywhere near the blazing ma
chine Remington was past all help.
Many accounts are given of the ac-
cident, but the clearest is that of
Miss Davis, superintendent at the in
dustrial school, Miss Davis heard the
plane start and went out in front of
the building to see it rise. She saw
| it come over the row of trees between
the landing field and the Marion
Farms, in which the school is located,
and noticed with surprise that it was
flying very low. She had barely time
ito note this when the plane tipped to
one side and then came straight down.
Utterly dismayed, she put her hands
before her face to shut out the sight.
She heard the crash as the plane
struck. and looking again saw it a
wreck on the ground. She saw a man
(Lieut. Feast) run around the plane,
stoop down and try to pull the other
man out. Then fire blazed out and
drove him back. She heard voices as
he and Remington spoke to each
other. Then Feast approached the
machine again but the fire was too
fierce for him to get near Remington.
There were two or three explosions
in rapid succession and the airplane
was mass of flame. Then Feast
ran across the field toward a cottage
about a hundred yards away, evident
ly hoping to find help. During these
few agonized seconds he had called
for help several times, but there was
nobody near enough to aid him. At
L. - x@1z -