P-MAN V - p. 12            

NOTE OF APPRECIATION

Once again, the P-MAN team wishes to acknowledge the help of the many Palauan people who have made our observations possible. We had help everywhere within Palau - from many individuals who helped us identify the critical elders and to the elders themselves. We also have received guidance and numerous introductions from different individuals and offices within the Palau government, including Senator Surangel Whipps, the Ministry of Justice (Mr. Michael Rosenthal) and the Historical Preservation Office (Ms. Vicki Kanai and Ms. Rita Olsudong). We greatly appreciate the help from the chiefs and hunter-guides of Ngatpang State, Peleliu State and Ngaremlengui State. We are also grateful to Neco Marine and Sam's Dive Tours for leads they have provided, as well as for providing superb service. In particular we acknowledge the special guidance that Mandy and Shallum Etpison, as well as Mr. Ephram Polycarp, have provided as we make our way around these beautiful tropical islands. And we happily continue to recognize the superb and ongoing efforts of our master guide, Mr. Joe Maldangesang. We want all the Palauan people to be aware of our deep gratitude in helping us find answers, important to families in the United States, to questions generated in and around Palau almost 60 years ago and our ongoing respect for your wonderful nation.

We also wish to acknowledge the ongoing support of the several agencies in the United States that are assisting our efforts. Of the many, we recognize here the U. S. Navy Historical Research Center, Navy Yard, Washington, D. C., the U. S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii, the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, Arlington, VA and the National Archives, College Park, MD. In particular, we wish to acknowledge the specific help of Dr. William Belcher, Mr. Chris McDermott, Mr. Tripp Wiles and Ms. Wendy Coble. They have always enthusiastically provided us with the technical and historical information we have sought - and much more.

We appreciate the assistance that Mr. Jim Nelson has provided to help find his father's aircraft. He not only provided us with new documents to help put together the events of 16 APR 45, he sweated along with us in 2002 on the surrounding jungles, while passing each day in our boat within feet of his father's final resting place.

Special thanks to Mr. Tangie Hesus, Mr. Eric Mailander and Mr. Frank Dermody for their assistance with the Peleliu Avenger. And thanks to Mr. Dan Bailey for information he provided about the aircraft on which he dove in Malakal Harbor.

Finally we wish to acknowledge that we greatly value the recollections (and photos) from veteran aviators and crews from VMF-114, VMF-121, VMF-122, VMTB-134, 307th BG (H)/13th AAF and 494thBG(H)/7th AAF - all of whom risked their lives for our country and the people of Palau. These men, their wives and families have provided historical and emotional snapshots of that time and place - and we have gained so many special friendships as a result.

		Once again, many thanks to everyone at Neco Marine for all your help. To Joe Maldangesang, Master Guide, the owners, Mandy and Shallum Etpison, and the entire staff: MANY THANKS from all of us with P-MAN VI!
		I thank everyone at my company, Xoma, for their understanding.
		The PMANV Team thanks the Explorers Club for the privilege of once again carrying Explorers Club Flag 61 with this expedition.
		Special thanks to our fellow team member and BentProp Webmaster, Reid Joyce!
		As with every expedition I have made back to Palau, I want to thank my family for their ongoing and unfailing love and enthusiasm. My wife, Susan, continues in her incredible year-round encouragement and support of my year-round involvement in this effort. All my love, Pat

Special Thanks to the P-MAN V Team:

Left to right: Val Thal, Pat Scannon, Flip Colmer,
Clem Major, Dan O'Brien, Jennifer Krasny-Powers
© Our waiter at PPR, 2003)

Although we look tanned, clean and healthy with the sun setting behind the Palau Pacific Resort (which was, during WWII, a Japanese seaplane base), every single person in this picture, by the time this photograph was taken, was coral-sliced, thorn-punctured, mangrove-bruised, electrolyte-imbalanced and chronically dehydrated from the fierce physical toll taken during our searches on land and in the water. I mention this because, for everyone here, the BentProp Project is a labor of love. True, each person in this picture brings talent and experience to this effort (see brief bios above) and, for the privilege of sharing this knowledge with the team, each also pays her/his own way from beginning to end in money, sweat and blood (with the exception of our cameraman, Clem, who just pays with extra sweat and blood, running ahead of us, wherever we may be, capturing our explorations on film).

On these missions, the day does not stop at dusk - we will frequently attempt to interpret our day's findings long into the night. Flip, Val, Dan and Jennifer spend not just the time in Palau but the entire year planning and researching with me for the next mission. For example, Flip, our year-round military liaison, has also recently uncovered a new group of amazing photographs at the National Archives that we are presently mining in preparation for P-MAN VI - these may begin to answer some questions which have been unanswerable up till now. Jennifer has taken up the task of trying to locate the families of these lost Americans, whose last addresses (if we have them at all) are almost 60 years old. Val has proven to have an uncanny sense of knowing the right thing to do with these families after we return home and notify them of the Americans whose crash sites we have just found. Dan has located and corresponded with aviation experts all over the world trying to learn more about important, yet oddball, parts we found. All are constant resources for bouncing crazy ideas off of all year long - and boy, do I do that.

And these are just a few examples of why this team is so very special. It is my distinct and ongoing honor to know them all and to have them as friends. I thank them for all they do with me in Palau and back at home. The BentProp Project is enriched by their participation and I love every one of them for what they so willingly give. p