Re: Eight MIAs Found with B-24

Date: March 07, 2004

"Divers locate WWII bomber

By Brandon Keat TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Sport divers are lured to the coral reefs of Palau by rich marine life, winding channels and underwater caves. Reid Joyce is drawn by the ghosts of war.

On his last trip there, the 62-year-old retired psychologist from Middlesex and fellow divers discovered an encrusted World War II B-24 bomber scattered 45 to 70 feet beneath the surface of the central Pacific.

Some divers had been searching for the aircraft for eight years, spurred by haunting stories of the crew's final moments. Eight U.S. airmen went down with the plane when the Japanese shot it out of the sky in September 1944. Three others bailed out in parachutes, only to be captured and executed.
For six decades, the wreckage lay unseen, until a local spear fisherman tipped off Joyce's diving team.

"We wound up right on top of the propeller," Joyce said. "It was the most precise lead we've ever had, and there it was."

"We looked at each other and one of the divers wrote on a wrist slate the name of the pilot, and we all nodded our heads, because we agreed that this had to be that particular aircraft," he said.

"We all had known the story for years and were aware there were still eight crew members likely in the wreck."

The discovery came Jan. 26 during a six-week expedition of the BentProp Project, an all-volunteer effort to locate American aircraft shot down over Palau in 1944 and 1945.

Joyce and other members of the group paid their own way to the islands and split the expenses of the search. The six-week trip cost each team member several thousand dollars.

After BentProp finds downed planes, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, a Defense Department operation based in Hawaii, excavates the wreckage to retrieve human remains and personal items such as medals, rings, watches and wallets. The command, known as JPAC, has teams dedicated to identifying servicepeople lost in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War and the Gulf War.

William Belcher, a forensic anthropologist and archaeologist with JPAC, said his group hopes to dredge the wreck site by fall 2005.

Neither BentProp nor JPAC will release details about the plane until remains have been identified and relatives informed.

BentProp is led by Patrick Scannon, of San Francisco, who once attended Taylor Allderdice High School in Squirrel Hill. The 10-member group has discovered about 20 aircraft, including three B-24s, over the past 10 years, Scannon said.

Lt. Ken M. Hall, of JPAC, said the group's latest find is important.
"It's certainly significant whenever we find even one (MIA), but to find eight surpasses expectations. Everyone feels rewarded when we can answer to eight families," Hall said.

Belcher said 78,000 Americans are listed as missing in action from World War II. Only 30,000 are considered potentially identifiable or recoverable. The United States each year identifies the remains of about 100 service members listed as missing in action.

That effort is aided by the work of BentProp, Belcher said.

"Every site that we're going to be working on in the next few years in Palau, they've found for our command. They're a tremendous asset," he said. "I always characterize Pat Scannon and his entire group as some of the greatest Americans that I've ever met, because they go out there on their own, and each member of the project pays their own way."

BentProp's efforts are aimed at finding the approximately 100 American aircraft shot down inside Palau's barrier reef in 1944-45, Scannon said.
"We focus on Palau because there's enough MIAs to occupy us for the rest of our productive lives," he said.

Palau is a chain of more than 300 islands lying 500 miles north of the equator and 600 miles east of the southernmost tip of the Philippines. A large portion of the country is protected by a barrier reef.

BentProp says Japanese Navy defenses on Palau posed a threat to U.S. plans to invade New Guinea and, later, the Philippines. Although Palau gets little attention in most military histories, the first President Bush served there as a pilot, sinking a Japanese trawler in September 1944.

Scannon said he and his team of about 10 members act out of a sense of patriotism.

"I feel very blessed as an American to have a country that has created this society in which we live. I don't take that for granted," he said "In this little way ... the team is saying thank you to those who defended our country."
Joyce is a longtime diver, but not a military veteran. He joined BentProp after meeting Scannon through a relative.

"I was immediately taken with the sense of the mission," he said. "You learn the stories of the crews, and you really find yourself wanting to find these people."

Scannon said the group had been looking since 1994 for the B-24 discovered in January.

"Going down and seeing this B-24 after spending so many years of looking at ocean floor bottoms without seeing so much as a rivet ... Then, it's not only there, but it's there essentially intact," he said. "It was a very emotional thing for all of us."

Brandon Keat can be reached at bkeat@tribweb.com or (724) 779-7113.
© 2004 by The Tribune-Review Publishing Co."