Roll of Honor
Robert Alexander Arrington
Incident
Major Robert Arrington was killed when his plane crashed while transporting an escaped inmate from Oregon to Texas.
Major Robert A. Arrington and Major George A. May, flew a Texas Department of Corrections airplane to Oregon to pick up an inmate who escaped from a Texas prison on March 31, 1970 and was captured in Oregon. The officers stopped in Pueblo, Colorado, back to Huntsville, Texas. On the morning of September 17, 1971, the TDC plane left the airport and crashed around 9:04 a.m., 15-25 miles southwest of Fowler in Pueblo County, Colorado. All three men were killed. The airplane flew into a late summer storm that dropped the earliest snowfall in the Pueblo area since record-keeping in 1888. Search planes were delayed because of low visibility.
Major Arrington was a Vietnam veteran with the United States Army. He served with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Correctional Institutions Division for over two years.
Major Arrington was a Vietnam veteran with the United States Army. He served with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Correctional Institutions Division for over two years.
Survivors
Major Arrington was survived by his wife.
In Our Keeping
- Permanent identifier
BO-US-TX-1559FA91- Stewardship
- Maintained by NeuraWeb Global Inc.
- Added to badge.nw
- April 2, 2026
- Last updated
- July 23, 2026
Honored here by 1 sentinel - 1 tribute.
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Tributes
I served 1985 to 1993. You served too, before the badge - different uniform, same idea. You go where you are sent and you do not get to pick the call.
Major Arrington gave the Texas Department of Criminal Justice 2 years.
Thank you for your service to the Huntsville community. Thank you for your service before it. Gone but never to be forgotten.
Rest easy, brother.
— S. Vincent Anthony, U.S. Army 1985-1993
Agency
Service Record
Incident Details
Military Service
Robert Alexander Arrington served in the United States military before joining law enforcement. Full service record available on salute.nw.
Major Robert Alexander Arrington is one of 10,088 officers lost to accidents in the line of duty across the full record of this memorial — 31% of all 32,508 officers honored here.
In TX, 653 of 2,421 officers were lost to accidents in the line of duty — 27% of this state's fallen. That is 4 percentage points below the national rate of 31%.
At Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Correctional Institutions Division, 32 of 124 officers on record were lost to accidents in the line of duty — 25.8% of this agency's fallen.
National Cause Distribution
How Accident compares to all causes of officer death in the memorial record. Robert Alexander Arrington's cause is highlighted.
How Robert Alexander Arrington Compares
When Accident Deaths Occur
Monthly distribution of Accident deaths across the full memorial record. Robert Alexander Arrington is highlighted in Sep.
Others Who Wore This Badge
123 officers from Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Correctional Institutions Division are honored on badge.nw. Showing the 16 most recent.
