Thanks to a July 11 Deseret Morning News article about the search for relatives of a Utahn killed in a government airplane crash during the Cold War, a cousin of the man has contacted a group formed to honor the crash victims.
Airman 2nd Class Guy Robert Fasolas, a resident of Nephi, was one of five military personnel and nine civilians aboard an Air Force C-54 that crashed near the top of Mount Charleston, Nev., on Nov. 17, 1955. The flight was classified, as it involved the development of the U-2 spy plane. At the time, government officials told false stories about its purpose in order to preserve secrecy.
The July 11 story told of the efforts of Las Vegas insurance agent Steve Ririe and his group to uncover the truth about the flight and to honor the crash victims and all others who died in government service during the Cold War. A bill in Congress would designate the crash site, near Las Vegas, as a national Cold War memorial.
The group, Silent Heroes of the Cold War National Memorial Committee, had managed to trace relatives of nearly all the men who died in the crash. Some had not known the real reason for the flight. Ririe and the committee coordinated memorial services with survivors.
The closure provided for the relatives of the men killed in the accident has been extremely satisfying for the families, he said.
But families of one crash victim could not be found — until now. That was Fasolas, the only Utahn on the plane.
Ririe and the group learned that Fasolas was a member of an LDS ward in Nephi, that his father was from Denver and that his mother was a prominent businesswoman in Nephi. But they could find no living relatives.
After the article appeared, helpful readers began delving into records in an attempt to locate Fasolas' family members. One woman called the Deseret Morning News from Nephi with Fasolas' mother's name. Another searched Social Security records.
An LDS missionary helped a researcher to forward information to the newspaper concerning records that show Fasolas' father was named Charles and his mother was Mabel. The airman was born July 8, 1934, in Nephi and was baptized in the LDS faith on June 5, 1943, she noted.
She added that Social Security death records show that Charles Fasolas was born on Oct. 4, 1907, and died Dec. 10, 1996.
Soon even more information arrived.
"I just got a call today from a cousin of Guy Fasolas," Ririe said last week. "There are two other cousins, and he's in touch with both of them.
"They're the last remaining family of Guy Fasolas," he added. "So it (the article) worked. Found them."
He thanked the Deseret Morning News "with all my heart," he said.
"Really appreciate it."
E-mail: bau@desnews.com