Annandale resident seeks more recognition for memorial to tragic accident that claimed the lives of six soldiers

The memorial at Howrey Field Park.

A tragic accident in Annandale 54 years ago, won’t be forgotten as long as some dedicated local residents keep the memory alive. 

On June 1, 1967, six soldiers who were putting up lights and a flagpole at Howrey Field Park in Annandale died after a pole hit a live wire and electrocuted them.  

James Walkinshaw, who represents Braddock District on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, plans to recognize the anniversary of the accident at today’s board meeting and every year going forward, says his aide, Brian Garcia. Walkinshaw also agreed to discuss with the Park Authority ways to improve the existing memorial to the soldiers. 

A plaque lists the names of the soldiers who died at Howrey Park.

Local resident Terry Powers has been conducting a campaign to get the county to pay more attention to the memorial, which consists of a flag, a plaque, and a few plantings.   

The six soldiers who died were in the engineering corps at Fort Belvoir and were assigned to install lights on the youth baseball fields as a community service project. They were from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Mississippi, Florida, and Texas and were all between the ages of 17 and 24. 

The ground was wet, and as they were setting a pole into concrete, it touched a power line on Braddock Road, Powers says. “They died instantly. There was a tremendous amount of voltage in those power lines.”

A news story on the accident quotes an eyewitness who saw the soldiers struggling to put up a metal flagpole swaying in the wind. When it toppled onto a high-tension wire, the witness said, “there was this big flash and then the GIs were just lying there in the mud with their clothes on fire.” 

Powers, an Army veteran, stumbled upon the memorial a few years ago while walking his German shepherd. He thought the county would do something for the 50th anniversary of the tragedy but nothing happened. 

Powers spruced up the memorial a bit on his own – weeding, mulching, and pruning the overgrown plantings. On Memorial Day, he adds more flags and flowers to the display. 

The ballfields at Howrey Park are maintained by the Annandale-North Springfield Little League, and the fields are named for the soldiers who died there. 

Powers has been trying to get the Park Authority and county officials to do more. He even offered to contribute to the cost and formed a nonprofit organization, called Friends of the Soldiers Memorial at Howrey Field Park, in November to generate more interest in fixing up the site. 

Powers would like to see the memorial enhanced with an interpretive sign, a plaque for each soldier, a couple of benches, and a fence. He has also been trying to contact the soldiers’ families and gather more information from anyone who remembers them or the accident. 

“The stone plaque says ‘lest we forget,’ but it’s kind of forgotten,” he says.