P-MAN XII Progress Report #21 - Paul Schwimmer checks in before departure
10 March 2010

Lesson learned: Never—ever—give up!

March 8th was a huge day for us. It was another jungle day, but one filled with total purpose. We were joined by the CAT (Civic Action Team), so we assembled our gear, hoisted our packs, and headed back to our target area, this time eleven men strong! We divided ourselves into three subteams, each with a unique assignment. Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait long until we heard the famous words “I think I have something you want to see!” And there it was, half buried in the jungle floor, the one piece of proof we needed to verify our find.

It wasn’t until that evening that the enormity of today’s events sunk into us. Our glasses clinked together for our team's evening toast, but this time it wasn’t with the standard thought of “there’s an American boy to bring home.” Instead, in our minds we heard “Thanks for coming back for me, guys. But what took you so long?”

March 9th was spent returning by boat to one of the nearby islands. We knew the location of some existing planes, similar to the one we were searching for, that had been pushed into a “plane boneyard”. We wanted proof positive that our World War II part matched an existing World War II part. I have to believe that the Palauans think we’re totally nuts when they watched us disappear into the boneyard. They occasionally see an arm appear here, a head pop out over there, or two legs attached to a butt wiggling between sardine stacked airplane parts in all various states of decay. While some members were parts diving, others were going through airplane books, constantly scratching their heads saying “Oh, that’s a blah blah blah, or that’s a . . . hummm, just what the heck it that?” But we were not to be denied our success. We were driven. And finally someone hollered out “Eureka!” and our mission was completed.

Six dirty, filthy, scratched-up team members loaded back on the boat for the trip back to our hotel – grinning from ear to ear.

March 10th was our final side-scan sonar day for this year’s mission. It was also a catch-up-on-lost-sleep day for many of us. Once the system is up and running there’s really not much to do but allow the rocking of the boat to lull you sleep. We covered about 7 miles of our target area, scanning a swath 500 feet wide. We got a couple of promising hits, but those will all be analyzed by the techno-heads over the coming year. Dinner was spent at one of our favorite spots, saying goodbye to friends we’ve made and to others who had been watching the progress of the team during our mission. Tomorrow will be a “taking care of business" day.

Paul sets up his GPS for the day's search grids.

- Paul

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