Purpose of the BentProp™ Project

During World War II, many American airmen lost their lives in the western Pacific, some in the western Caroline Islands, in what is presently known as The Republic of Palau. The ultimate fate of hundreds of these men remains a mystery today. For more than a half century, families and wingmen of airmen who were declared Missing In Action (MIA) have lived with a painful lack of closure: they do not know exactly how and where their loved ones died. If they could have such knowledge it would not eliminate the pain of loss, but such knowledge can sometimes ease the emptiness and silence the nightmares.

The only antidote for such painful lack of closure is information. Unfortunately, the ocean and jungles don't give up information about long-lost aircraft without a struggle. The ocean can bury an aircraft under sand and silt, or gradually envelop it in a shrine of coral. The jungle, similarly, reclaims a wreck over the years by letting it sink into the mud and be slowly covered by each year's bounty of leaves and vines.

Pursuing such mysteries, especially after the passage of so many decades, is not easy. Random searching, above or below the ocean's surface, can be a colossal waste of time. Directed searching using information gleaned from archives can at least provide tentative boundaries for a search area - but not always the correct one. By far the most fruitful approach is winning the trust of people who live in an area, who are then willing to come forth with information (and often express a willingness to be guides) leading to sites that - to them - are just curiosities from a time long beyond their recollection. Over several years, BentProp™ teams have tried all three approaches.

That's what we do: we search the waters and jungles of the western Pacific, in what we hope are intelligent ways, for clues that may lead to the location and identification of wreck sites and remains of men who gave their lives in defense of America.

On the question of remains: we share information with - and greatly admire the efforts of - JPAC (the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command), which was recently formed by merging the 30-year-old U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii (CILHI), and the 11-year-old Joint Task Force - Full Accounting. These are the folks who assemble and deploy teams to places like Europe, Korea, and Vietnam - and recently, to Palau - to look for, recover, and identify remains of American MIAs. When we (the BentProp team) discover a site that may still contain remains, JPAC, which has the world's largest forensic laboratory, has the resources (e.g., DNA analysis) to extend the scientific analysis of the site and seek positive identification. We also notify relevant armed services' historical agencies, including the US Naval Historical Center, the US Marine Historical Research Center and the US Air Force Historical Research Agency. We also inform air reunion groups that flew over Palau, including the VMF (Marine Fighter Squadron)- 114, VMF-121, VMF-122, 494th BG(H) (Bombardment Group (Heavy)) of the 7th Army Air Force and the 307th BG(H) of the 13th Army Air Force. Finally - and perhaps most importantly - we share information with families of missing airmen, as the information is obtained and confirmed.

About this Web site

The BentProp™ Web site is intended to make available information that the various teams have accumulated since Pat Scannon first realized that he was in this pursuit for the long haul. Other team members have contributed both to the expeditions and to the information contained here.

You can navigate through this site in a couple of ways.

• If you're looking for information about a specific crash site, you can consult a table that includes details of most of the U.S. crash sites explored in Palau during BentProp expeditions over the past several years.
   
• The menu at the left side of each page is designed to give you direct access to various collections of information that live on this site. Just click the links, and explore the collections.
   
• There are also several fair-sized chunks of pages that tell a story - for example, there are detailed, individual reports on several P-MAN expeditions. "Forward" and "Back" buttons are provided at the top and bottom of pages within such chunks to allow you to move in a straight line through the story, if you wish to follow the "flow."

Please note that you can view the caption for any illustration by simply touching the illustration with your cursor.

Use the menu on the left to navigate to the destination of your choice.
  

Page last modified 2 April 2008
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