DURANT, Okla. – Five of Britain’s Royal Air Force officers and their families made an emotional visit to Pushmataha County on Sunday, Feb. 2, as local groups honored Britain’s war dead.

The yearly ceremony took place at the RAF Monument on Big Mountain, north of Moyers. 

The Choctaw Nation Color Guard presented the colors, as they have every year since the monument’s dedication in 2000.  Five of the Color Guard have participated each year for the past 20 years.  

Bob Ludlow, a member of the Color Guard, opened the ceremony with a word of prayer in Choctaw, which he then translated into English.  Chantelle Standefer of the Choctaw Nation’s language department sang the National Anthem in Choctaw, and “God Save the Queen” in English. 

“We thank the Choctaw Nation and the people of Pushmataha County for their many kindnesses in helping us honor our dead,” said RAF Wing Commander Maj. Craig O’Donnell.  He made special note of the lunch provided by the ladies’ auxiliary of the Antlers chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, which each year serves the British visitors to the county a lunch at the VFW Hall in Antlers.

The RAF Monument north of Moyers honors four Royal Air Force fliers who crashed and were killed during stormy weather.  One aircraft impacted Whiterock Mountain north of Moyers.  The other crashed at the site of the monument on Big Mountain, west of Kosoma.  A third aircraft crash-landed in a pasture in Jumbo; those fliers were unhurt and attended the dedication of the RAF Monument 57 years later, in 2000.

February 3, 2020