P-MAN V - p. 5              

ATTACHMENT 3:
Collecting GPS coordinates on five previously discovered crash sites, Babeldaob and Koror, 03-04, 11 March 03 (GPS Readings NOT listed in this report)

For several years, I have attempted to collect GPS coordinates on crash sites as we have located them. In some instances, and for a variety of reasons, I have not been able to collect GPS readings in several jungle settings. However, GPS devices have since improved sensitivities and the BentProp team has developed a number of techniques for improving our ability in the field to get readings. Accordingly, we revisited 5 sites to obtain new readings or to confirm old ones. These revisits (for me) also permitted the other team members to become familiar with these sites, as well as allowing the PostStar Production team to film-document the sites. Finally, since the original finding of some of these sites predates BentProp’s American flag ceremonies, I had a renewed opportunity to honor the airmen lost there. In several instances, the P-MAN V GPS readings listed below include entry points as access to these sites would otherwise be difficult to ascertain.

• 03 March 03, port wing of 44-42058 (‘058) B-24, 494th BG(H), 7th AAF, 04 May 45 (Fig 3-1): We approached the small island (Iberor) south of Koror from its north side and climbed through the jungle to the wing, which lies broken in two along the island’s ridge. The wing has not degraded appreciably since I first saw it in 1994. We held a flag ceremony for the Custer crew in front of the wing’s leading edge. This flag will go to the family (who contacted me just before P-MAN V) of LT Glenn Custer.
   
• 03 March 03, fuselage area of ‘058 B-24, 494th BG(H), 7th AAF, 04 May 45: About a mile from the wing along the southern side of Koror, we approached an old dock and walked into the mangrove area. The debris site was unchanged in spite of daily tidal exposure to salt water. We did find the open pit from which, I was told in 1994, the crew’s remains were exhumed after the war. Before leaving, we held a second flag ceremony for the Custer crew and will hold the flag for other crew member’s families, should we locate them.
   
• 04 March 03, Bu No 14257 Corsair, VMF-121, 04 March 45 (Fig 3-2): Lying deep in the mangroves along the northern side of Koror, this surprisingly intact crash site was last flown by LT Walter Brown, now living in Florida with his charming wife, Frances. He is the only American airman we have found thus far who survived being shot down and escaped from the enemy in Palau (I have written about this previously at www.bentprop.org , also see end of this Report). Although I had visited this site on three other occasions (1994, -96 and –99) the mangroves had grown so much by 2003 that both Joe and I could not find our old entry point. Joe found two women in a nearby village who had come across the crash site while crab hunting. They led us through chest high water into the mangroves and we almost floated our way to the site. The two women found our eagerness to get filthy with mud quite humorous but they stayed with us for most of our visit. Because some members of the team had the honor of meeting the Browns, we decided to hold a ceremony for Walter Brown – we all can’t wait to deliver the video and flag in person. Only later did we realize that we were at the site exactly 58 years after the crash, almost to the hour. The debris has not appreciably degraded since I was last here except that whatever paint could be seen before is considerably more washed out – including the white stripe behind the Star-and-Bar on the port side of the fuselage, designating this as a VMF-121 aircraft. No Bureau Number is (or has been) visible on the vertical stabilizer.
   
• 04 March 03, unknown Corsair (possibly VMF-122) (Fig 3-3): We first visited this site with Lazarus, our guide in 1999. The front half of the Corsair remains in reasonable shape in 3 feet of water on the western barrier reef off Ngaremlengui. Once again we did not find any markings, which might have allowed identification.
   
• 04 March 03, Bu No 14241 Corsair, VMF-114, 03 March 03 (Fig 3-4): Lazarus took the P-MAN (I) team here for the first time in 1999. The route to this site in southern Ngaremlengui consists of following a creek uphill from a small bay through a mangrove into a series of hills, one of which contains the site. This Corsair had impacted into the side of a hill on the right side of the creek (looking north) and consists of an almost complete debris field with the engine lying imbedded deep into the red clay 20 yards to right of the main fuselage/empennage area. The tail section has survived intact wedged between a cliff and a giant tree. I had previously discovered the Bureau Number on the vertical stabilizer (now lying horizontal) which identified this as the aircraft that LT Ken Wallace died in after being hit by ground fire. His remains were recovered after the war by the US Army Graves Registration Unit but the location of his crash site and death had been lost until we re-identified it in 1999. We held an American flag ceremony next to the engine with its prop blades bent rearward. As we walked through the chest high water of the creek/channel out of the mangroves, Val and Jennifer saw recent evidence of crocodiles (usually nocturnal).
   
• 11 March 03, partial fuselage/nose gear, 44-40603 B-24, 307th BG(H)/13thAAF, 28 August 44 (Fig 3-5) :