American Legion Post 11 of Mount Holly celebrates Capt. Emilio Carranza every year at the Pinelands site of his July 1928 plane crash, which occurred as he piloted a goodwill flight commissioned by the government of Mexico.
Emilio Carranza tribute takes place Saturday at Wharton State Forest
The 96th annual Capt. Emilio Carranza tribute is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at the site of the airman’s 1928 crash in Tabernacle’s Wharton State Forest.
The event at Carranza Memorial Park is hosted by the Carranza memorial committee of American Legion Post 11 in Mount Holly and representatives of the Mexican consulates in New York City and Philadelphia.
The post celebrates the doomed flier every year at the Pinelands crash site, which occurred as he piloted a goodwill flight commissioned by the government of Mexico. A violent storm is assumed to have been the cause.
Post members eventually recovered the young airman’s remains from across almost 25 miles of dense underbrush. The following year, the post held its first Carranza memorial service, where a memorial monument built of stones quarried near Mexico and paid for by the children of Mexico City was erected in 1933.
The memorial attracts visitors from all over the U.S. and Mexico each year.
Captain Emilio Carranza Memorial Service in 2017
