Renaming bridge would honor pilot

TERREBONNE (AP) - Support is growing for renaming Oregon's highest bridge after a farmer better known as the man who shot down Japanese Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto.

Lee Flegel of Redmond has proposed the 300-foot high U.S. 97 bridge across the Crooked River should be named after Rex T. Barber as a way to honor the late fighter ace.

Barber was one of the 16 pilots dispatched from Guadalcanal in long-range P-38 Lightnings on April 18, 1943 to fly 400 miles across the Pacific to intercept the bomber carrying Yamamoto and his fighter escort.

The American Fighter Aces Association gave Barber sole credit for shooting down Yamamoto's plane. The Air Force, however, contended Barber shot off the tail of Yamamoto's plane, while Capt. Tom Lanphier blasted it before it plunged into the jungle. Both men claimed full credit for bringing Yamamoto down.

"There's a thing in the back of my cerebral cortex that says, 'Gee, he didn't get official credit for what he did. What can be done locally to memorialize him?' " said Flegel, an Air Force veteran.

An interview with a Japanese pilot supported Barber's story. So did evidence at the crash site found in the 1980s on the island of Bougainville. But the Air Force repeatedly refused to reopen the case.

Since then, the Second Yamamoto Mission Association has lobbied to gain sole credit and the Congressional Medal of Honor for Barber.

As the debate simmers, Flegel started the process of renaming the Crooked River Bridge through the Oregon Department of Transportation.

The $18.3 million, four-lane bridge opened in September 2000, replacing a two-lane steel span. The bridge is the highest in use in Oregon, and its unique design has gained it international attention.

Few roads and bridges are named after people in Oregon, but state policy allows it if there is statewide support and the person "shall have made a lasting contribution with significant and historic impact on Oregon," said Bob Bryant, the transportation agency's regional manager in Bend.

The only recent example is the Tony Yturri Memorial Beltline in Ontario, which will be named for the former state senator when it's built next year.

Oregon's naming policy also says the individual must have been dead a year and that the structure is to be at least a half-mile long. The Crooked River Bridge is 535 feet long, just over a tenth of a mile long. Bryant said the commission can interpret the policy to allow the naming anyway.

Flegel is working to get veterans groups and elected officials to back his proposal.