Emilio Carranza

Captain Emilio Carranza fell to his death around 8:30 p.m. July 12, 1928. A stone monument marks the quiet spot in the woods, southwest of Chatsworth, a rural town in central Burlington County once famous for being a stop the Jersey Central railroad line. There is the occassional roar of a fighter jet from McGuire Air Force Base.

Carranza’s death was international news. He was Mexico’s foremost aviator, trying to get home after a goodwill flight to New York. President Calvin Coolidge offered the battleship U.S.S. Florida to take the body home, though eventually the cortege took a train. In New York, the coffin was borne through the streets on a gun caisson, draped with Mexican and American flags, followed by 10,000 soldiers. Though ballads are still sung in Mexico about the 23-year-old pilot, in America his name is largely forgotten, if it was ever known. Yet, there are still a few faint echoes of that distant crash.