P-MAN IX Update #06
18 February 2007

Howdy Y’all!

A great day in the jungle. But first, lessons learned.

  1. Dent and kill a transmission on a loaner van, and you don’t hear the end of it.
  2. You have to ask the right question in order to get a meaningful answer.
  3. Sometimes, the smart man theorem gives way to just getting dirty.
  4. Palauans are the world’s most helpful people.
  5. DOB’s blueberry pancakes are great.

We got up at a reasonable hour. Pat let us sleep in 30 extra minutes. DOB made blueberry pancakes and my favorite turkey bacon. Sam’s Tours offered to loan us a van, but not until 0930. I’m pretty sure Pat signed papers saying I would not drive off of real pavement.


Photo by Pat Scannon

We told the owner of our first van that it no longer works and he said his mechanics would look at it and let us know.

JPAC called to see if we could be at the barge over our B-24 site the next day at 0900. An Admiral is coming into town and JPAC wanted him to meet us. Of course we said yes. So tomorrow will be a boat day.

Joe came by, we loaded up and headed out. Our first stop would be to visit with a hunter named Wilson.


Wilson and family.



For Mike Olds and his girlfriend.
Can you tell what the rooster is anchored to?

He chatted with us about his area and said he didn’t know anything that would help us. But he said we should go see Jason. However, he would be happy to take us out into the jungle. We thought that was an excellent idea.


Jason and Joe conferring.

Jason is also a hunter in the area, about 10 minutes drive from Wilson. Jason said he hadn’t seen anything, but we should chat with an elder that he knows.

We went to see the elder and enroute we came across some very unusual antenna systems. The signs don’t really tell us much. But here we are out in the middle of Palau with unusual hunks of metal. And the radar looking dish sweeps the sky level, then inclined at a 45 degree angle and then straight up. What’s with that?





We swear that this antenna
pointed at us and started to track us.


There’s a lot of metal in the antenna field
attached to this sign. However, those photos
all came out blurry. Me thinks it’s
not a good idea to hang around there.

 
The elder had a beautiful piece of property. If I could have these views……

He said that he did not know anything about airplane wreckage in our area of interest, or in our search area yesterday. His son, Olu, said that there was wreckage long ago, but the ocean reclaimed it. We asked if he meant salvagers but he said no, the ocean. That could mean the wreckage is still there, but just covered up by silt and sand. We may go back with a metal detector. Olu by the way is the Clerk of The Senate in the federal government.

Then we asked if he knew anything else and he volunteered that he found a plane in the water near the power plant with a data plate that said Douglas and 1944. He wrote the serial number down but has long since lost it. A Douglas aircraft wasn’t on our radar screen at all. Could an unknown aircraft be down there? We have a pretty good handle on what has been lost in the area. However, it’s not perfect knowledge. Could a Helldiver be down here? The elder is meeting us at the dock near the power plant tomorrow and taking us to where he says he found the wreckage. How convenient that we already have a boat for tomorrow.

He had such a pretty view, and some good breezes blowing through that we asked to have lunch on his veranda. He said yes and we all shared our picnic lunch together.

 

After a bit of socializing, we left him, examined the radar and radio antennae more and picked up Wilson. Out to our area of interest and we began to search. Some of the area was just your standard jungle. Some was thick ferns that were piled so high that you could not tell what was underneath. So, we elected to search the areas where we could see the ground. We do not have a lot of intel about this area other than a Graves Registration Unit (GRU) lat/long entry. We were counting on a little luck to find something here. But we did do a fine circular search pattern. Bob Holler, our para-rescueman, complimented us in our ability to learn.



Close to the scene of the great Van Massacre.
And check out the yellow boots.
I think it’s going to get wet in the jungle.



Into the jungle for a short hike.

We decided that it would not be warranted to go back until we can get some more recent intel. We’ve decided to visit the villages in the area and see if any elders are around who may know more about this shoot down.

We all came out of the jungle pleasantly whipped. We all like this trekking. The Palauan jungle is quite tourist friendly. There are no poisonous snakes, no bad diseases and not many bugs. The mosquito that causes dengue fever is really an urban bug, not a jungle bug. It is warm in the jungle and we sweat quite a bit. But we all loved being back in it. Just a walk in the woods.

Drove back to Neco Marine and dropped off Joe. We headed to the hotel, got cleaned up and headed out to The Taj: a great Indian restaurant. The owner is a great host who recognized us. A waiter sat us down and offered us menus. We politely declined and the owner came over and he crafted us a meal, as he has done the past few years. It was wonderful.

We’re back at the ready room. DOB, Pat and Bob are pouring over waypoints and search tracks on their GPS boxes. I’m writing to you. Is that dedication, or what?

Hopefully, when you read tomorrow’s update, we’ll have a new crash site to report to you. But until then, have a great day.

Blue SKies, Flip