A Sacred Sacrifice: How McEntire Joint National Guard Base got its name

RICHLAND COUNTY, S.C. (WIS) - You may be familiar with McEntire Joint National Guard Base in Eastover, but you may not know the incredible story of its namesake: Brig. Gen. Barney McEntire.

Col. Michael Ferrario is the Wing Commander for 169th Fighter Wing at the base.

He says in 1960, the base, then known as Congaree Air National Guard Base, was the first to receive the F104 Starfighter from the military.

“It was a very advanced aircraft, but it was somewhat problematic with a history of engine problems,” Ferrario stated in an interview with WIS.

The base stood at the ready with the F104 at all times. however, it wasn’t long before the Brigadier General at Congaree in 1960, Barney McEntire, raised concerns that the new planes just weren’t flying right. Ferrario said.

According to Ferrario, “General McEntire decided he needed to do something about this and took the lead on getting these issues addressed.”

So, McEntire and a deputy commander set up a conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at Olmsted Air Force Base. The two of them flew F104s to the meeting in May of 1961. There, the group came up with 41 action points they wanted implemented to make the engine safer.

“Specifically, McEntire had a quote at that conference that ‘the Air Force needs to take immediate action about these engine problems in the F104, or they’re gonna have dead pilots on their hands.’”

No one could have known how prophetic that quote would prove to be.

The very next morning after the meeting adjourned, McEntire and his deputy commander took off to head back to South Carolina. That’s when McEntire’s grave prediction began to unfold.

“General McEntire had severe engine issues,” Ferrario said. “Witnesses report his aircraft in flames and heading toward Harrisburg.”

McEntire quickly veered the plane toward the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg, crashing his plane in the water.

“When they pulled the aircraft out, they noted that he made no attempt to eject,” Ferrario said. “It was very obvious from the evidence from the witnesses that General McEntire made an intentional sacrifice to insure the injured F104 did not injure any civilians or crash into a populated area, and he took his chances taking it into the Susquehanna River.”

That decision saved lives, but cost McEntire his own. In the aftermath of the General’s death, the 41 measures proposed at the conference he organized were implemented, and the F104 became a safer fighter. Eventually the jets were put back into action in Spain in October of 1961.

“One month later Gov. [Ernest F.] Hollings renamed Congaree Air Force Base to McEntire to honor the sacrifice General McEntire made on that day in May, 1961,” Ferrario said.

Now all these decades later, pilots at this base enter the gates, see the name on the building, hear this story and remember the sacrifice.

“I’d call it a motivator,” Ferrario said. “When you know that your forefather was such a patriot and willing to make sacrifices for his country it just kind of rubs off on everyone around here. To have someone like General McEntire that was so selfless is really an inspiration.”

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