By Katelyn Aluise, The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — It rained Thursday afternoon as dozens of students, alumni, veterans and family of the Thundering Herd gathered for the 54th Memorial Fountain Ceremony honoring the 75 victims of the crash of Flight 932 on Nov. 14, 1970.
“It’s so surreal,” Rick Call, Class of 1971, said of the ceremony. “Every year it kind of unwraps a new emotion or a new feeling about the people that were lost at the time. Since it’s remembered every year, it just opens up new wounds, but they’re healed by all the community that (gets) together and supports it.”
Call was one of people who sat in the chairs lined up next to the Memorial Fountain for the families of the 75 people who died that night. And like many of the people sitting next to him, he remembers the night of the crash vividly.
“(My wife and I) were students at the time. We were seniors, and we had just gotten married in June of that year, and the plane crash was in November,” Call said. “So we were actually newlyweds, and we were actually doing a social event with some friends of ours that night when the plane crash happened and we got the news.”
Call’s father-in-law, former athletic director Charles Kautz, died in the crash with the rest of the football team, coaching staff, fans and other passengers on board. Call has attended the ceremony every year.