News-Info-Alerts

Re: Remains Sites Become a Lure for Looters

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: January 19, 2003

"Military tries to save history from looters
Ancient sites, relics difficult to preserve
Mike Toner - Staff
Sunday, January 19, 2003

Providence, R.I. --- As World War II recedes into the past, one legacy of that conflict --- thousands of downed airplanes, sunken ships and the remains of servicemen still missing --- poses a new concern for those who want to record and revere history.

From sunken landing craft off the coast of Normandy to the wreckage of bombers that crashed into the Papua New Guinea jungles, anywhere an American soldier lies dead is hallowed ground. Now, because under U.S. policy 50 years marks the dividing line between contemporary and historic, thousands of graves have also become archaeological sites, holding details of events that aren't in any of the history books.

The military has the authority and funding to recover bodies when they are found. But it often lacks the ability to recover the ever more valuable wrecks and relics, which become lures for looters.

Military researchers outlined a few of the wrenching issues they face at a meeting last week of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

On a steep mountainside in New Guinea, forensic experts from the U.S. Army's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii --- the lab that identifies Americans missing in action --- recently spent several harrowing weeks picking through the wreckage of a B-27 that crashed into the densely wooded slopes in 1942 with a crew of eight and a full load of 500-pound bombs.

Sorting through the wreckage, the researchers recovered the remains of all of the crew. They also found a rich trove of WWII memorabilia, from navigation tool kits to the signatures of the "Rosie the Riveter" women who assembled the plane --- items that under New Guinea law were artifacts belonging to the government.

But, a landslide buried the crash site. "It's probably just as well that it was buried by the landslide, because once these sites are discovered they are subject to looting," said Sabrina Buck of the Army forensics lab.

Looting, whether by local residents or dedicated artifact hunters, is a worldwide concern. And as the technology enables the military and others to discover once lost sites, the problem is growing.

The Naval Historical Center, which maintains a list of known military shipwrecks from Colonial times to the present, is feeling the pressure.

"Our database now includes more than 3,000 shipwrecks, and it is growing," says the center's Barbara Voulgaris. "Unfortunately the ability to find these wrecks is advancing faster than our ability to protect them."

A few high-visibility wrecks, like the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley that sank in Charleston Harbor and the ironclad USS Monitor that sank off the North Carolina coast --- both archeological treasures that also held human remains --- have taken years of work and cost millions of dollars to recover and preserve.

Most wreck sites aren't so lucky. With limited resources, the Navy can do little but record the locations of sunken ships and planes . Over the last three years, it has been mapping the location of sunken ships and cargo that was lost during the D-Day invasion of France. Hundreds of landing craft, tanks and other vehicles litter the bottom along a 50-mile stretch off the coast of Normandy.

To deter looting, the locations and other details of thousands of such sites are closely held secrets. Even the military, however, isn't able to stop casual artifact collectors and commercial salvagers from picking over such sites.

"Ship and aircraft wrecks are national treasures that hold priceless artifacts," Voulgaris says. "Looting them is a little like walking out of Monticello with one of Thomas Jefferson's chairs. These things belong to all Americans, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to balance protection with the right of public access."

One of the most pressing problems is in Lake Michigan, whose waters are littered with vintage military aircraft, many of them lost between 1942 and 1945, when the lake served as the training area for aircraft carrier operations.

Then, eight pilots were killed and more than 128 planes crashed, including Hellcats, Vindicators and Avengers, as well as the world's first bomb-carrying pilotless drone.

Over the years, some planes have been recovered intact --- tires still inflated and oil still in the crankcase --- and put in museums. Others have been heavily scavenged by collectors. Efforts to prosecute looters have intensified.

"We think we have stopped the hemorrhaging for now. But these vintage warbirds are extremely valuable," says Wendy Coble of the Naval Historical Center. "There is so much there that is so well preserved, it is a gift that should be preserved."

© 2003 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution"