The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was shocking and quickly thrust the nation into World War II. In the surprise attack by aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy on the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, 2,403 American lives were lost, eight battleships were damaged, and numerous other ships were either destroyed or sunk. It has also served to this day as a symbolic act of the strength of America, for which President Franklin Roosevelt referred to the event famously as a date that would “live in infamy.”
In a similar search into history, current technology is also coming into recovery uses, now employing lost WWII aircraft to rediscover long-lost events during wartime. A group, Fallen American MIA Repatriation Foundation, known as FAMIARF, has gone a long way in this endeavor using drones fitted with ground-penetrating radar to locate a Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter that belonged to the “Lost Squadron” below the ice in Greenland.
Bad weather in July of 1942 made the weather so bad that a “Lost Squadron” of six P-38s and two B-17s were forced to crash into Greenland. The crews were rescued, but the planes were left where they came to rest and over time were buried in snow and ice. Many decades later, the search for remains has heated up with the recent recovery of one of its P-38s and a further search for more lost aircraft like that Grumman J2F-4 Duck which disappeared during a rescue mission in November of 1942.
The search was carried out by businessman and pilot from Southern California, Jim Salazar, and his partner Ken McBride. Salazar said that he hoped this discovery would allow them to eventually recover the Duck as well, which vanished on the same mission to rescue a B-17 crew, which crashed on the ice. In that plane were Lt. John A. Pritchard, Jr., Petty Officer 1st Class Benjamin Bottoms, and U.S. Army Air Corps Cpl. Loren Howarth.
Drones have changed reconnaissance, allowing research teams to scope out Greenland’s deadly ice fields far more quickly and far more safely. In the old days, we had to use sleds to drag the radar across, said one of the members of a search team that has continuously fallen into crevasses. With that type of potential, the drones can reach 32 feet off the ground while performing far more significant sweeps with real-time data.
The success of their drone technology on this Greenland mission was reported by Salazar. The P-38 was quickly picked up on location by the drone team and confirmed to be there by radar, and by a steam probe that brought up hydraulic oil. This break has set the stage for their next mission: locating the elusive Duck.
The smaller Duck, being made of wood and canvas, is much more difficult to locate by radar. Salazar says that primarily they are searching for the engine case; in the past, efforts to find any part of the aircraft were totally in vain. The heartbreaking tale of Duck’s vanishing began on 28 November 1942 when Pritchard and Bottoms rescued the B-17 crew. Saving the two crew, on their return flight, they were caught by a suddenly arrived storm and crashed.
A subsequent, search, that took place later found the fuselage of the gunless fuselage of the Duck, but it was too late; the stormy weather and doubt of the exact location of the wreckage made it impossible for the aircraft to locate it. The bodies of Pritchard, Bottoms, and Howarth were then left on the ice and ultimately were swallowed by it. Pritchard and Bottoms were both awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross award for their heroics.
Salazar filled with optimism, holds out hope that the advanced technology will eventually put to rest this wartime saga. Actual success on this mission may then enable the way on similar projects at other potential recovery sites, completing the commitment of bringing these heroes home.