P-MAN XV Update #1 - The Next BentProp Adventure is about to begin

07 March 2013

It's almost Palau!!

I have four days of flying for 'da man', then off to Palau on the 12th. It's going to be an exciting year out there. But first, meet this year's BentProp team.

Pat Scannon, Founder and El Jefe of The BentProp Project

Joe Maldangesang, Master Guide and Boat Captain

Dan O'Brien (DOB), film maker and good will ambassador to all

Flip Colmer, foreign correspondent

Maj. Derek ("You mean it snows in North Carolina?") Abbey, USMC

Capt. Casey ("It's not easy traveling from one tropical island to another") Doyle, USMC

Rev. Lew ("I was there before all of you") Towler, BentProp chaplain
and veteran of the Peleliu invasion

In addition, The Stockbridge High School Advanced Underwater Robotics Team
will be returning with an improved Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV),
and a new towed camera array.

We will be doing some joint searching with Eric Terrill and his team from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and The University of Delaware. In a matter of days, their Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) will be able to conduct wide area searches that would have taken us years to accomplish, if it all, via our towed side-scan sonar unit (SSS).

The calendar looks to be as fluid as usual, but weI do know the following:

• Before March 13th, Scripps arrives in Palau
• March 13th, Flip arrives
• March 14th, DOB arrives
• March 15th, Pat and Lew arrive
• March 18th, Derek arrives
• March 22nd, Stockbridge arrives
• March 24th at ohgawdawfulinthemorning, Casey arrives
• March 24th, joint day off for a trip to Peleliu. Lew's first trip there was on D+3 of the September 1944 invasion
• March 26th, April 03, 14, 15 and 16: various people leave Palau.

This year will mostly be on the water. We do not have any solid intel that warrants going into the jungles or mangroves. Yet. But we hope to develop good reasons for some land work once we are in Palau.

Our high value target this year is the last remaining B-24 that was shot down inside the barrier reef. If we can find a piece of it anywhere, that will go a long way to finding this missing crew.

So the next time I write, it will be from over there. I will have had a Bem Ermii milkshake, fresh sashimi and a Red Rooster beer so you know I will be in the right frame of mind to be a good reporter for you.

Flip Colmer

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