Jim Spence survived the crash of a Super Constellation during his Navy stint
PHOTO PROVIDED
Jim Spence is pictured at the time he graduated from Great Lakes Naval Training Station outside Chicago, Ill., in 1958 at age 18.
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This is all that was left of the Super Constellation that Spence was flying in as part of Early Warning Squadron 13 based at Argentia, Newfoundland. All but one of the 28 crew members aboard survived.
SUN PHOTO BY DON MOORE
Jim Spence of South Gulf Cove today at 72.
After boot camp at the Great Lakes in 1958 and a stint in aviation electronics school in Patuxent River, Md., Radioman 3rd Class Jim Spence wound up as a radio operator aboard a U.S. Navy four-engine Super Constellation patrol plane flying out of Argentia, Newfoundland, in Airborne Early Warning Squadron 13.
“It was a rock in the North Atlantic off the Canadian coast,” said Spence, now 72 and living in South Gulf Cove. “It was as desolate a place as you could find. There were no trees, no vegetation at all.
