P-MAN IX Update #05
16-17 February 2007

Hello Everyone!

First off, a public service announcement. Dan O'Brien gives Pat Swovelin the coordinates of our travels and Pat puts them in my blog in a format that Google Earth understands. If you have Google Earth installed on your computer and you click on one of the little "earth" icons () in the text below, Google Earth will fly you right to where we’re working. Depending on the day, you might even see us waving! If you click on one of the little "Google" icons () in the text, you'll see a "Google Maps" image of the same area. More about the Google Earth stuff...

16 Feb 2007

Today was our first day in the jungle. It was great to get sweaty and dirty again. But first, lessons learned.

1. DOB still makes a great breakfast.
2. Half hour appointments take longer.
3. There’s still mud boggin in Palau.
4. Diesel vans really do need their transmissions intact to run.
5. Fresh sashimi in Palau is the best.
6. Palau is still at the far end of the skinny wires of the Internet.
7. Mangrove mud is still medicinal.

It was up at the crack of 0630. The normal routine is for the first riser to start the coffee pot. Then we have breakfast together in the ready room. Briefing of the day's activities and eating sometimes takes place simultaneously. We cover what we are going to do, where we are going to do it, safety precautions to be followed, procedures to be adhered to and what time we’ll return.

We had some courtesy calls to make first thing today. We were out the door at 0800 to drive to the capital .

The new capitol, still under construction in 2005.

Palauan detail.

Open for business with the Palauan flag flying proudly.

You may remember that a new capital complex was built on the big island. It looks as if an alien spaceship just plopped it down out in the middle of the island. The government has moved in and is functioning wonderfully. However, I can still remember the day when we ate our lunch on the veranda when we were the only folks there, except for the two carpet layers.

We had a meeting with The Vice President, who announced today that he will be running for President in the next election.

Pat at the VP’s door.

Vice President Chin is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel. He flew helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. He knows about our work in the islands and he is very supportive of it. We gave him an update on our efforts to date and a brief description of our intentions this year. We showed him Google Earth and he immediately saw the benefit of this technology for both us with BentProp and Palau.

DOB, Pat, VP Chin, Bob, and Joe

He kept us longer than planned and we raced back to Koror to meet with some State Governors and some Chiefs from Ngatpang State . There are two governmental institutions in Palau: the federal government, which includes President, VP, Senators, Representatives, Governors and State legislators, etc, and the traditional Chief structure. Both play a very important role in Palau and must be addressed in just about everything that we do.

We met with the Governors and Chiefs for well over an hour. Lots was said and we got the blessing of this council for our work.

Out to a real lunch and then we geared up for our first journey into the jungle. A number of years ago, a local hunter took us into the jungle to where he said there were some graves. What we found were some mounds with stones all over them. Could be something there. There was also a small concrete bunker in the area. Very well made, but not very big. We did not think much about this site until we started reading the Guam War Crime Tribunal records last year. Piecing together the testimony of the Japanese on trial, with a few grains of salt, and looking at some Japanese wartime maps we have since found, we thought maybe those mounds might be the graves of some executed American Flyers and 10 members of a Jesuit missionary community who were also executed.

On the walk in.

Yes, it’s not much to look at but this is what has got us a little excited.

There was also a British national executed who was married to a Palauan woman. It was reported that he was incarcerated in a small air raid shelter by the edge of the jungle and was taken out and executed nearby. We found some things that fit this description. As we walked in, we saw more structures than we did four years ago. We found the mounds and we feel that a look by JPAC is in order. All told, maybe 14 people could be found by this lead.

Was this the Brit’s last home?

Just wanted to stick one of me in
so you know I’m really here. Photo by Pat Scannon

Bob on patrol, again.

Pat and Dan conferring near our soon-to-be dead van.

We then drove around the new road (Under construction for the past bazillion years, but almost done.) looking for other sites. We got off the paved road and went onto a dirt/rock road. We drove to Wilson’s house. He’s a Palauan hunter in the area and if anything is in the hills here, we’re told he’ll know about it. He wasn’t at his house. However, we left a message and the family said he’d call us.

We drove back out and started down a couple of little roads trying to get close to a GPS waypoint we have. After the war, the Graves Registration Unit (GRU) tried to find these missing airmen. Sometimes, they would get a lead from a local, not have any success locating a wreck, but still recorded the lat/long. We have those points and wanted to find a spot along any road that was close to our destination. All the roads we passable, save one. And of course my teammates said “let’s go down that one.”

We got into an area of serious mud. The van was making it through and then we bottomed out on something. With a loud bang. And a crunch. And spinning wheels. And another crunch. I managed to get it to dry ground and then we stopped and let Pat out to reconnoiter. He went down the road farther, and Bob took a left 90 degree turn to check out the jungle entrance area. Meanwhile I turned the van around for our expected departure.

However, when I went to race out, I picked the wrong side of the road and got stuck in the mud. In our attempts to get unstuck, we noticed the drive wheels sometimes were not turning. Not in reverse, not in forward. We were stuck. And the van wasn’t helping us get out.

We got it going for a little bit and made a little more forward progress. However, we also made downward progress and were stucker.

Joe went to the villagers nearby and soon a short yellow school bus showed up. A bit of rope and a tug and we were out. However, without a push up to 8-10 mph or so, the van would not go on its own. And if it encountered a hill, it would roll backwards in drive. It seems that when I bottomed out the van, I took out an already cantankerous transmission. The intercooler warning light had come on intermittently for the past day.

However, we nursed it to the local store, called Neco Marine and they sent another van to rescue us. It took an hour for the van to show. In the meantime, the villagers brought us a mosquito coil and some treats: ice pops and donuts. Mmmmmmm, good.

We left the van at the store and started back to our hotel. This rental van was a loaner from a good friend of The BentProp Project. We’d have to wait until late Saturday to call the van owner and tell him what happened. They’re Seventh Day Adventists and are pretty serious about not doing anything from sunset on Friday until sunset on Saturday. Pat said he’d make the phone call. He knows if I made it, it would be a ‘good news, bad news’ call. The bad news is the transmission is trashed. The good news is we filled the tank just prior.

Dinner at Kraemer’s which is an expat hangout. Great food and a beautiful view of Malakal Harbor. This is where some Marines sang the Marine Corps Hymn in sight of where we would eventually find the airplane of Major QB Nelson, USMC.

Fell fast asleep and all of a sudden, it was the next day.

17 Feb 2007

Up at the crack of 0615. This was going to be our first water day. We would have to take jungle gear as well as water gear as there was a chance of doing both. Joe secured us a boat from Neco Marine and off we went. No courtesy calls today.

We went 100 yards and came to a halt. Just wanted to stop and show Bob how close some finds are. This was QB Nelson’s site. We cruised out toward Babelthuap.

Didn’t get many pictures today, but I did snap this.

Wanted to say hi to the JPAC team who is working our B-24 site. However, it was an off day for them so no one was aboard the barge.

Then we went to a spot that Kenji said he once saw wreckage. Kenji is the manager of a local insurance agency. He owns the land where we found the Wildcat a few years ago. We put on our water walking gear and waded to shore. We walked the shoreline, into the mangroves and a bit on top of the island. The wreckage was reported on the water’s edge but we looked all over anyway. No luck.

We headed out to the outer reef to see a Japanese airplane that we found last year. Even though it gets buried in sand all the time, there is still a little red paint on the rising sun on the wing. Interesting site, but really doesn’t help us.

Art shot of two aircraft carriers. San Diego, CA.
Nothing to do with Palau, but I was a bit lacking
in the photo department today.

We cruised back in and took the rest of the day off. Had a great sunset at Sam’s: cold beer, lots of sashimi and finally met some of the Navy Divers that are working our B-24 site. Two of them are alumni as they had worked the site in 2005.

Now were back at the hotel, ready to crash. The tropical sun can really take it out of you. I had to close my eyes a bit so I could finish this off.

The plan tomorrow is to go hiking. And I can’t wait. This jungle is relatively friendly. The terrain may be hard going, but being in the jungle is a hoot.

And that brings you up to speed.

Blue SKies, Flip