P-MAN
II - 11 
Finally,
almost three hours later, the hunters spread out and started looking around
as we got near. We crested a hill and ran right into a Hamilton-Standard
propeller, standing upright and still attached to its Pratt&Whitney
R2800 engine. We found we were standing on a plateau about 40 yards in
diameter and, contained within its perimeter, appeared to be the debris
field of most of an American fighter. The debris appeared to have entered
the field to the northwest and stopped at the base of a stream and hill
to the southeast.
The
propeller/engine narrowed the possibilities to a Corsair (F4U/FG-1) or
a Hellcat (F6F). Lying adjacent to the propeller was what appeared to
be the front end of the fuselage with the starboard wing in place but
with the port wing clipped off. The cockpit's location was not obvious.
Lying behind the fuselage was most of the tail assembly, minus the horizontal
and vertical stabilizers. Lying up the hill behind the fuselage was probably
the rest of the port wing. At various places within a 20-yard radius of
the propeller were smaller pieces of debris.
I
found an important small piece lying off by itself: the tail wheel assembly,
which reduced the identity to that of a Corsair, which meant it most likely
had been assigned to the US Marines.
Chip, spending most of his time with
the fuselage, found a plate that said: BUSH MANUFACTURING CO Hartford,
Conn Model No. CV 18617 Serial No. 3089. I found out later that this company
still exists and makes hydraulic - related gear. We found a second nomenclature
plate but it did not contain any specific serial numbers. The critical
plate - one containing the Navy Bureau serial number - has not yet been
found. Chip also found partial "numbers" on the fuselage which
looked like: FGF or E6F (Note: these symbols might also be upside down).
Greg searched up the hill to the east and found no additional debris.
Later, he found a special piece of debris: the aviator's aluminum seat,
impacted upside down on the side of a stream lying forward of the most
forward aspect of the fuselage. I searched to the rear of the fuselage
(toward the northwest) and found small amounts of debris trailing behind
into the jungle. Multiple attempts to get a GPS reading were unsuccessful
under the dense jungle canopy.
