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westvalleyview.com — the newspaper of Avondale, Buckeye, Goodyear, Litchfield Park & Tolleson, AZ 50¢ Wednesday, July 5, 2017 (623) 535-8439
Buckeye official dies in plane crash by Emily Toepfer and Chris Caraveo
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TOTAL LOSS 3 West Valley homes destroyed by fires — Page 2.
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A city official was among the two people who died June 27 in a plane crash in the Gila Bend Mountains after taking off from Buckeye Municipal Airport that morning, officials said. The city of Buckeye confirmed John McMahon, the airport coordinator, died in the crash. “The entire city mourns the loss of John,” Mayor Jackie Meck said. “John was a very special man who loved his family, his faith and always saw the best in people. The city of Buckeye has lost a family member and we will miss him greatly.” A Van’s RV-7 with two people on board departed at about 8 a.m. in Buckeye and was expected to return by 10 a.m., said Ian McGregor, public affairs manager for the Federal Aviation Administration Pacific Division. When the plane hadn’t returned by 4 p.m., Ari-
zona Search and Rescue asked MCSO officials to join its efforts to locate the aircraft, said Sgt. Calbert Gillett, a spokesman with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. An MCSO helicopter discovered the wreckage at about 4:40 p.m. about 17 miles southwest of Buckeye in a field near a farm service road named Agua Caliente, which is close to old U.S. Route 80, he said. Officials located McMahon and another person at the scene. The name of the other person has not been released pending identification by the medical examiner, Gillett said. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board continue to investigate the crash. McMahon started with Buckeye in 2012 as a skilled maintenance worker in the Streets Department, becoming the airport coordinator in October 2013. As the lone employee at the airport, he managed the day-to-day operations, ensuring the
airport met Federal Aviation Administration and Arizona Department of Transportation regulations, facilities maintenance, working with tenants, managing fuel needs and other duties. He is survived by his wife and three children. McMahon’s family has set up a Memorial Fund at Desert Schools John McMahon Federal Credit Union. Check back with the View for information as it becomes available. Emily Toepfer can be reached at etoepfer@westvalleyview.com or on Twitter @EmilyToepfer. Chris Caraveo can be reached at ccaraveo@westvalleyview.com.
Quilt honors military service Avondale man recognized by Quilts of Valor by Glenn Gullickson staff writer
GAME OF STONES View’s Shane McOwen delves into sport of curling — Page 12.
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Scott Henline never earned a medal when he was in the Navy, but his time in the service 70 years ago has been recognized in another way. The 91-year-old Avondale greatgrandfather, who is a World War II-era veteran, recently received a quilt as an honor for serving in the military. The presentation of the quilt on June 18 was made by Quilts of Valor, a national program that recognizes veterans and others touched by war with the gift of a homemade quilt. More than 159,000 quilts representing the comforts of home and well-being have been given away by Quilts of Valor, according to Jennifer Wilson of Tucson, who coordinates the program in Arizona. “They’re awarded in recognition of what that person has done,” Wilson said. “To be awarded [a quilt] is a very special thing.” Wilson presented about 20 quilts around the state during the month of May, including four to recipients in Buckeye and another in Avondale. Wilson said the quilt presentations are often emotional. “You know you’ve touched a heart,” she said. “Sometimes, you just see it in their eyes. Sometimes,
View photo by Ray Thomas
SCOTT HENLINE is awarded a quilt by Jennifer Wilson of Quilts of Valor June 18 in his Avondale home. Quilts of Valor honors veterans and others touched by war with handmade patriotic quilts. To see all photos from this shoot, go to www.westvalleyview.com/pictures. there are tears. Some people just beam.” She said people can nominate loved ones to receive quilts, which are made by quilters who donate the material and their time. Henline’s daughter, Starline, who works with Quilts of Valor in Colorado, nominated her father for the honor. Henline volunteered for the military, joining the Navy at age 18 in 1944, three days after graduating from high school in Trinidad, Colo. Henline served most of the two years he was in the Navy at the Chesapeake Bay Naval Base in Virginia, where he was assigned to a landing ship and went through amphibious forces training. He stayed stateside when the war ended two weeks before his ship had been assigned to go to Pearl Harbor in 1945, Henline said. “The war had been shortened by
the atomic bomb,” he said. While his ship had training in Cuba, Puerto Rico and on the Great Lakes, Henline said the closest he got to any danger during his military service was when there was a mishap during a mortar exercise aboard the ship. “I was extremely fortunate that I wasn’t in any war zone,” Henline said. Henline went on to become a pharmacist in Albuquerque, N.M., and moved to Avondale with his wife, Gwynn, in 1988. Quilts of Valor was established in 2003 by Catherine Roberts of Delaware, whose son was deployed in Iraq, as an honor for those who were wounded during service in Iraq and Afghanistan. Roberts saw the quilts as means of thanking veterans with something that she considered to be a civilian equivalent to the Purple
Heart award. Over the years, the organization expanded its mission by awarding quilts to veterans from any era as well as civilians touched by war. Wilson said the quilts have a patriotic theme, often pieced together with red, white and blue fabric. She said more than 170 quilters in Arizona donate quilts to the stock that she draws from to make the presentations. Wilson, a Vietnam veteran who served as an Army surgical nurse, said she got involved with the organization after she was presented one of the quilts in 2014. “It’s something I treasure,” she said. For information about Quilts of Valor, visit www.qovf.org. Glenn Gullickson can be reached at ggullickson@westvalleyview.com.