Small-town school research project goes international

Thursday, February 17th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Jacob Hill never expected his sixth-grade class project to get so out of hand. In fact, the boy is downright nervous now that the British dignitaries are coming to southeastern Oklahoma to see the results.

The Kiamichi Mountains will ring with "God Save the Queen" Sunday as students from the tiny town of Rattan stand before their guests and unveil a monument to four British airmen who died there 57 years ago. "This is probably the biggest thing that has ever happened," said Hill, a 13-year-old who was "not real big on school" until his class started looking into the 1943 crash.

Three Royal Air Force planes preparing for World War II combat disappeared in rough weather during a training flight from their base in Terrell, Texas. One landed safely. The two other AT6s plowed into the hills about 20 miles northwest of Rattan in the corner of Oklahoma known as "Little Dixie."

The families of the fallen cadets, British embassy officials and U.S. dignitaries plan to be at the crash site Sunday when the students unveil their memorial. "These kids have really put not only their hometown, but Terrell and everything else on the map once again," said Henry Madgwick, a RAF veteran and mayor of Terrell. "It's a wonderful feeling to think that the young people cared."

Rattan Elementary teacher Beth Lawless said her sixth-graders knew almost nothing about the crash when they decided to tackle it as a class research project three years ago. "We had no idea at the time we were even looking at British pilots," said Lawless, who suggested the project after receiving a tip from a friend who works as senior archivist for the U.S. Library of Congress.

And so, 12 students from the working class town of about 250 began their work. They wrote letters to local newspapers asking if any residents remembered the crash. They searched archives for clippings. They learned British pilots came to the United States because it ensured a safe training ground far from the European battlefields.

They ran into brick walls. They pushed for more records and made contacts in Terrell, where the cadets were buried. They received a letter from the pilot of the plane that landed safely. They pieced the story together -- 45 minutes a school day. "It all kept on coming," said Adam Green, a 14-year-old who got interested in the project because he liked airplanes.

This year's class of sixth-graders wanted to go a step further by erecting a monument at the site. With the help of Lawless, their contacts and other adult volunteers, they tracked down the airmen's family members. They collected aluminum cans from alongside the road to raise funds. A local artisan donated his time to create the marker. And a British airline donated travel to the siblings of the fallen pilots-- Vincent Henry Cockman, Frank R.W. Frostick, Michael John Minty Hosier and Maurice Leslie Jensen.

Along the way, students said, a strange thing happened. Their spelling improved. They discovered they could write letters. Hill suddenly found his Ds turning to Bs -- not just in his reading class but all classes. School was suddenly, well, interesting, he said. It made him think about his future. "I kind of want to be a pilot," Hill said. "Either that, or an archaeologist looking for stuff like this."