November 11 is Veterans Day. A day—a celebration—to honor America’s veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good.
This is the first of three articles honoring those men and women.
Two months ago, in “Leave No Man Behind—65 Years Later,” I praised the spirit and culture of our military as reflected in the creed that you don’t leave anyone behind—whether captured, injured or dead.
I also acknowledged the risks that fellow soldiers, sailors and airmen take and the heroism displayed in missions to rescue their brethren or in recovering their remains.
Finally, I commended the continuing efforts by the Department of Defense—through the dedicated actions of a 400-person unit, called the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC)—to find and bring home the remains of our fallen heroes from the Vietnam War, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and even from World War II.
These dedicated men and women will travel anywhere—whether the deserts in Iraq, the jungles of Vietnam, or a muddy cow pasture in Germany—to bring home our heroes.
The most recent, well-publicized recovery effort was the “bringing home” of Navy Capt. Michael Scott Speicher, who was shot down while flying a combat mission in an F/A-18 Hornet over Iraq during the early hours of Operation Desert Storm.
Another memorable, albeit somewhat controversial recovery effort took place on the Kronborg Glacier in Greenland in 2004, more than 40 years after an ill-fated Navy P-2V Neptune anti-submarine patrol aircraft on a Cold War mission disappeared over the North Atlantic during a routine reconnaissance mission in 1962.
Initially, the Navy presumed that the aircraft had crashed at sea. But, after a British geologic survey team in 1966 discovered wreckage on a glacier in Greenland, the Navy launched a “limited recovery effort.” According to the Navy “only 7 of the 12 air crew were recovered” then.
Also according to the Navy, in 1995, it received photographs from a helicopter pilot from Greenland Air indicating that human remains were still present. Other sources claim that “in August 1995 some exploring geologists stumbled onto the Greenland site and found the remains of at least two crew members on the surface of the snow.”
What followed was a nearly 10-year period of delay, hesitation and “bureaucratic problems,” while family members of the crew urged the Navy to send a new expedition to the crash site.
Finally, in September 2004, a 16-member team recovered the remains of the other aviators on the Kronborg Glacier in Greenland.
According to one source, “an embarrassed Navy hired a British contractor to help JPAC recover the remains, which it did without difficulty in September 2004. The cost: $239,000.”
Too risky, too far, too expensive, too difficult. These were some of the reasons for the delays in the Greenland recovery effort.
Similar reasons were also heard in another recovery case. This one, however, did not involve the recovery of our troops, but rather the recovery of an aircraft, a P-38 aptly named “Glacier Girl” afterwards.
Here is a very short version of that fascinating World War II story.
In July 1942, an Army Air Corps squadron of two B-17 Flying Fortresses and six P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft were flying the treacherous “North Atlantic Route” to Great Britain, part of a mission code-named “Operation Bolero.” After a refueling stop in Greenland the squadron hit bad weather, decided to return to Greenland and, running out of fuel, the aircraft were forced to land on the Greenland icecap.
The 25 crew members of what became known as the “Lost Squadron” survived and were rescued after ten days. The aircraft, however, were gradually covered with snow and were eventually buried under 250 feet of packed snow and ice.
As far as I can determine, the military had little interest in recovering any of the Lost Squadron aircraft. But, through the years, other organizations and individuals made several attempts to recover the aircraft.
Finally, in 1992, a “Greenland Expedition Society” (GES) expedition funded by Roy Shoffner, a Kentucky businessman and pilot, found a P-38, all in one piece. It was to be named the “Glacier Girl” The recovery of the aircraft, bringing it up piece by piece from its tomb 268 feet beneath the Greenland ice sheet surface, is an unbelievable story of risk taking, technological innovation, spectacular American ingenuity and engineering, and just pure perseverance and dedication.
But that is another story for another day.
Today, Glacier Girl, an aircraft that rested for 50 years deep under Greenland’s ice, is, after a 10-year restoration effort, the most authentic, and oldest, P-38 in the world, and regularly flies at air shows across the country.
You might ask, why I am telling you all this.
For three reasons:
1. The bureaucracy and laxity displayed by the Navy in the recovery of the remains of the P-2V crew members from the Kronborg Glacier in Greenland may be apparent once more.
2. The unique technology, techniques and skills developed during the successful recovery of Glacier Girl, can once again be used and applied to a similar, but even more important recovery effort.
3. Once more, relatives, friends and concerned Americans are pushing the envelope and pulling out all the stops to bring home with dignity three American heroes who have been buried, and preserved, for 63 years in a 150-foot deep Antarctic grave.
You see, 63 years ago, in 1946, a Martin Mariner PBM-5 flying boat, code-named “George 1,” with nine Navy souls on board was part of a classified, volunteer-only, U.S. Navy Antarctic expedition called “Operation Highjump.”
“In an unexpected whiteout, the Martin Mariner PBM-5 flying boat ‘George 1’ grazed a ridge line, ruptured a fuel cell, exploded and crashed three seconds later on Antarctica’s Thurston Island…Six crew members survived. They buried the three men who died beneath a specific and well-marked area under the starboard leading edge of the large flying boat’s wing.”
Today, 63 years later, Ensign Max Lopez, Naval Aviator; Chief “Bud” Hendersin, Aviation Radio Mate 1st Class; and Chief Fred Williams, Aviation Machinists Mate 1st Class—the first American servicemen to perish in Antarctica—rest in a temporary grave, 150 feet below the Antarctic ice and, according to JPAC, “well-preserved, cocooned in parachute silk by their crewmates, frozen by the intense Antarctic cold and buried under the starboard engine nacelle.”
Today, family members of the three heroes, have formed an organization committed to bring their loved ones home, with or without the help of the U.S. Navy.
The organization, “George 1 Repatriation Project” is headed by Lou Sapienza, polar recovery expert, expedition leader (including the last three GES missions that recovered Glacier Girl) and executive director of the organization.
Sapienza says:
We owe it to the families. We owe it to the courage of these and all people who wear or who have ever worn the uniform of this country, to return them home to their families and their native soil.
In my article on the Germany recovery effort, I mentioned that time is running out for the recovery of our World War II heroes because “many elderly witnesses and local historians, crucial in helping to locate crash sites, are dying or already gone.”
In the case of the three George 1 crew members, time is certainly running out also because the Thurston Island Noville Peninsula Glacier with the George 1 site is moving out to sea, and qualifies as a high priority, “perishable site” according to JPAC criteria.
Admiral Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations, wants to declare the George 1 crash site a “final resting place.”
Sapienza asks: “How can a moving glacier making its way into the sea be declared a final resting place?”
At the time of Speicher’s recovery, Roughead said: “Our Navy will never give up looking for a shipmate, regardless of how long or how difficult that search may be.”
It remains to be seen whether the case of the three aviators in the Antarctic will be an exception to the admiral’s solemn promise, to the solemn military creed of “Leave no man behind.”
In a future installment, we’ll take a look at the efforts, plans and frustrations expended and experienced by “George 1 Repatriation Project” to bring these patriots home, with or without the Navy, with or without the U.S. government, and how Americans can help.
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.