Re: Effects Clue to Pilot's Loss

Date: March 15, 2004

"Badge clue to pilot
Nick Papps

AMERICAN soldiers have found the wings belonging to a pilot missing for 62 years in country Victoria.

The metal badge was found by forensic experts searching north of Moe for the remains of the World War II pilot.

Investigators have spent the past week excavating a site in heavy bushland where United States Captain Joseph McLaughlin crashed his Kittyhawk plane in March 1942.

Several parts from the plane have been found but an extensive examination of the area has so far been unable to find the airman's remains.

Soldiers from the US army's Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) launched the dig after receiving information on the crash site near the township of Walhalla.

The crashed aircraft was discovered in 1949 and many parts have been scavenged over the years, including a watch with the pilot's name on the back.

The watch was stopped at 10.30, the time Capt McLaughlin is believed to have crashed.

But mystery has surrounded the remains of the pilot with one report that bones had been returned to the US and buried in an unmarked grave in Hawaii.

The JPAC experts had been hoping to find remains at the crash site to DNA check against the remains in Hawaii.

"The main thing we are looking for is bone fragments and teeth," JPAC's Major Eric Lanham said.

"At this stage we haven't found any."

But Major Lanham said the pilot's wings discovered last week were an important find and would be returned to Capt McLaughlin's family.

"It will be something to hold on to," he said.

"Anything we can do to help ease the pain for the family."

The search for Capt McLaughlin was sparked by one of his fellow officers in the US 20th Pursuit Squadron, Major-General Joseph Kruzel.

After discovering research on the crash site by Morwell man Rick Hanning, Maj-Gen Kruzel contacted the Pentagon and the investigation began.

United States records reveal Capt McLaughlin, 25, from Montana, was last seen over Yea on March 10, 1942.

He had been flying from Canberra to Laverton and was seen turning towards Alexandria about 10am as storm clouds gathered.

A cloud of smoke was later reported in countryside near Mt Baw Baw.

Capt McLaughlin had been in Australia to fly Kittyhawks to the Philippines to support US forces. But when the Philippines fell, Capt McLaughlin was re-deployed to Australia.

Last year, the Herald Sun exclusively reported JPAC had found the remains of Australian journalist Neil Sharman and American Charlie Dean in Laos.

Both men were killed during the Vietnam war.

© Herald and Weekly Times        © AFP"