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ALLAN CHARLES ABRAHAMSON was born on 28 July 1931 in Kearney, NE, to Milton and Dora Abrahamson. He grew up in Ravenna and Pierce, NE, and in 1945, he and his family, including his two younger brothers, Gary and Gordon, moved to Alameda, CA. Allan attended Alameda High School, where he achieved a high grade-point average and was a member of the California Scholarship Federation. He also was a member of Alameda High School’s Junior ROTC, where he attained the rank of major and was a member of its rifle team. After graduation, Allan entered the University of California at Berkeley, majoring in engineering. After one year, Allan received an appointment to West Point from Congressman George P. Miller, Sr.
At West Point, Allan roomed with Everett Drugge and Fred Lindsey in Company F-2. After his Plebe year, he played ice hockey and lacrosse, both of which he enjoyed very much. In 1951, Allan returned home to visit at Christmas. Later, he and 18 other cadets hopped aboard a military transport plane at Hamilton Air Force Base in Marin County, CA, for the return to West Point. On December 30th, due to bad weather, the plane crashed outside Phoenix, AZ, into the Superstition Mountains. All aboard were lost. According to his roommates, Allan, who was nicknamed “Abe,” was fun-loving and a joy to be around, but he also was serious about his studies, which came easy to him. He was competitive in military and athletic endeavors, but his outlook on life was so positive that he would brighten a room when he entered it. His approving smile uplifted the spirits of his classmates. His company barracks were in the “Lost 50’s,” and the cadet gymnasium was just across the street. If there was slack time, he would fill it with a challenge to a game of tennis before dinner or a workout on the squash/ handball courts, which were across the street from the gymnasium.
Losing Abe and our other classmates in the plane crash overwhelmed us with shock and grief. Many of their roommates were sent to their friends’ memorial services to represent the Academy and the military. For the families of the lost cadets, their sons’ arrivals in heaven came much too early in their young and promising lives.
Allan’s mother, now ninety-nine, knew that his classmates gathered together for their fiftieth reunion in 2004, where they honored the memory of her first-born son and reviewed this memorial article, written by her two remaining sons and Allan’s roommates at the Academy. Although Abe died fifty-three years ago, the memory of his spunk and spirit still lights our way.
— Written by Gary and Gordon Abrahamson, his brothers,
and by Everett Drugge and Fred Lindsey, Allan’s roommates
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