National Park After Dark - Vanished: Finding Missing WWII Soldiers in Palau

Episode Date: May 6, 2024

Today we visit one of the bloodiest battle sites in WWII and tell the stories of the men who lost their lives there. When Pat Scannon discovered many of them were never found or brought home, he began a search to find them.For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Alo Moves: Use code NPAD to get a free 30-day subscription.BetterHelp: National Park After Dark is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off.Claritin: Head to claritin.com right now for a discount.IQBAR: Text PARK to 64000 to get 20% off all IQBAR products and free shipping.For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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No soldier left behind. This is the United States Armed Forces Sacred Oath. The oath to never leave a fallen comrade is a promise made to fellow soldiers that even if they die, their brothers and arms will do everything. they can to bring them home. It is a sacred commitment to never leave anyone behind on a battlefield. The U.S. Army Soldiers Creed even says, I will never accept defeat, I will never quit, I will never leave a fallen comrade behind. Unfortunately, that oath has not always been able to be upheld. Nearly 81,000 American service members remain missing after having served in World War II,

the Korean War and the Vietnam War. At the time, circumstances made it too hard and too dangerous to return for the soldiers who lost their lives. But now, decades later, after the dust has settled, it is time to bring them home. Welcome to National Park After Dark. Cassie's doing a World War II story. It's here. Sure. I always try to find a way to bring work. World War II into the podcast, which is hard because there's not a lot of national parks dedicated to World War II.

And generally, it's not a very uplifting subject, at least in the way that we speak about it. Well, well, I know you, I know this book that you were reading for it, but I don't know, I don't think anything about this story. So I'm really excited to hear it. I feel like this has been a story I've actually kept tight-lipped and haven't talked to you that much about. I know, I know. Which is, I don't know what. I think it's just been because I've been so busy at home this week. Like we're doing a lot of construction at the house. Like I haven't had time to text you like every thought that I'm having like I usually do. I know, which is actually so funny that you say that because this week between like the wedding I was at last weekend and now and all the things you were doing and I was doing like just for some reason our weeks have been really busy when generally the busy type of lives that we lead. we can still like text each other and stuff.

And we haven't talked a lot over the last week. I'm like, are we fighting? Is this the beginning of the end? Of the end? No, I think our friendship is still holding strong. Yeah. I'm not worried now. I'm glad I could bring you that comfort.

Great. It's just, it's odd when you like, it's in times where you don't talk for like a day or two that you realize how much, how frequently. We speak. It's not even like a daily thing. It's just throughout the day about everything. It's like morning and night. It's like I just had breakfast. What are you up to? What are you doing? I know. And then sometimes you're like, I looked at your location. Why are you at this place? It's like, oh, right. Like, hey, what? How's Spanga? I know. It's like, how did you know? Aside from the fact that I put it in our schedule. Which by the way, I'm so bummed that there's not any at the place that I'm going to. I'm going to. I'm. going to be at now. I checked. Oh, where you're moving to? Yeah. There's only one that's kind of near my parents' house. No, I drove by it. Oh, is it closed? It's closed. Yeah, because I remember you mentioned that you were

looking for the spanga that was there. And I drove by that area like two weeks ago. And it's not existent. There's something else there now. Wow. I should have known because they took it off their website. It doesn't say there's a New Hampshire location. And I was like, oh, well, I know there's one because I used to work. Our work was right near it. And I saw it. Petition to open another one in southern New Hampshire. Coastal New Hampshire slash Maine.

Yes. Petition started. People are probably like, what the hell is Spanga? Spanga is a workout. It's kind of like, I don't know, like Orange Theory kind of thing. Yeah. Spin bike, yoga, and weightlifting. Yeah, it's 20 minutes of spin, 20 minutes of weights, and 20 minutes of yoga.

And I absolutely love it. And there's one close to me right now that I go to every week. But now I'm going to have to find something else. It's fine. It's fine. You'll find something. Well, my algorithm has been pushing, like, bullying me about Pilates. So. Maybe it's a sign.

Yeah. Like everybody on the reformer and stuff. Like those types of videos. I feel like Pilates would be a good one because Pilates is such a mix of like yoga, but also a little faster pace and a lot of like body. Body weight stuff. Yeah. Body movement stuff.

Yeah. So I feel like that could be a. Anyway, we're already completely off. track. Okay, well, before we get into World War II, if anyone has recommendations for a good workout studio that will keep my mind engaged as well as my body in southern New Hampshire, coastal New Hampshire, slash Maine, let me know. Without trying to triangulate myself. It's like, please tell us your address so we can figure. Okay. You may have the floor. Thank you. I appreciate that. Well, for today's episode,

we are going to be talking about World War II, which is there's so many directions you can go with World War II because it was such a global war. But we are going to be traveling across the world, and we're going to be going to the island nation of Palau, which is part of the island country of Micronesia, which is located in the Pacific Ocean southeast of the Philippines in case people. I had no idea where Palau was the first time I heard it. So it's near the Philippines, if you know where the Philippines are. I'm actually going to Google that really. No, I've seen pictures of it, but I've just never seen it on a map. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. So I have a look at where it is if you can't picture it. And I'll go into a lot of details about the islands, so we'll get more familiar with it. But for this episode, we're going to be diving into some long-lost history of World War II and the search efforts to find missing American soldiers that were lost within these islands. So first, a little bit about World War II just to get a refresher in case you're not familiar or it's been lost a time when we learned about it in elementary school and high school.

If you haven't heard about it in a long time and won a refresher, here's a very brief summary. And by summary, more like morbid facts about World War II. Oh, okay. All right. So during World War II, more than 400,000 Americans were killed. Some of their deaths were at the hands of prison camps. Others were lost in combat behind enemy lines. And some were lost on planes that were shot down over the position.

Ocean and today over 81,000 soldiers have never been recovered. The stories of their final moments have never been known and their locations have largely been undiscovered. World War II took place from 1939 to 1949 and is considered the deadliest and most destructive war in our history. While 400,000 Americans died, it is estimated that 74 million people died across the globe. This has gone down in history as the war that consumed the entire. world as it virtually touched almost every part of the globe with 70 nations involved. The world was catapulted into catastrophic economic collapse with major exports and imports affected around the world. People lost their jobs. Many people starved. On top of that, the fights and bombings took place

on multiple continents. It took place on the continent of Africa, Asia, Europe, and on the high seas. The United States officially joined World War II on December 8, 1941. The day after the attack of Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt declared war against Japan. Three days later, Germany declared war on the United States, and thus we became fully involved. And I think that that's an interesting fact to know because I think a lot of people think that the United States joined World War II against Germany because of the Holocaust that was going on and because it was outright wrong. But in reality, we did not enter World War II against the Germans. They actually declared war on us first and that was a move on their part to become allies with Japan. And we were

declared war on Japan. So it was more of a strategic thing and then we didn't get involved in stopping the Holocaust and everything that was going on in Europe until after Germany declared war. Until later. Yeah. Which is fucked up, but I digress. Like this was going on for years, but we weren't affected so we didn't care. Shortly after we declared war on Japan, military planners developed an island hopping strategy for a westward push across the Pacific to Japanese home islands. After the successful battles taking control in New Guinea, they made their next target the Palooan Island chain, which served as the last major obstacle before the Philippines that they were trying to get to. And there's a lot of complicated history that goes into this, but basically a lot of

this comes down to imports and exports and the United States not having access to things that they needed to and opening up basically the oceans, the trade routes, yeah. And while this battle that took place in Palau has been largely considered controversial and many people disagreed with the decision to go into war or try to take these islands at the time. The U.S. did cite reasons that they decided to go into it. And they said that it was important for the United States because at the time, over 10,000 Japanese troops had taken control of the island of Pelaloo and the airfield there, which allowed Japanese planes to threaten the United States allies in the Philippines. So basically, it was a strategic maneuver to get back an airplane field that the Japanese had taken over. And again, this is a very short summary of what was going on.

I'm sure there's a lot of moving parts. Yes. There are a lot of moving parts. but essentially we end up in Palau and the United States planned an air raid and invasion of the island. The plan would get 4,500 U.S. Marines onto the island in the first 19 minutes of their assault, who would then pave the way for another 24,000 U.S. troops to advance into the islands. They had predicted that the raid would take them about 90 minutes to conduct and the island would be secured in just four days. So they thought that this was going to be really easy.

They thought that it would be very minimal casualties. casualties and they were completely wrong. This turned into one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific and lasted for over two months. Whoa. Well, that just jogged my memory. Have you seen the Pacific, the series? No, I don't think so. You would absolutely love that. So it's, you know the one that just came out? I've been trying to watch it on your Apple TV, actually. So on mine? Yes. Oh, that's so funny. I forgot that. Wait, I might not have Apple TV anymore. I might have canceled my subscription. Okay, well, here's what happened. I'll tell you. Okay. So you definitely still have it, but you don't have the Apple TV Plus, which is what I needed to watch the show I was trying to. So the show I was trying to watch on your platform is called Masters of the Air.

And it's about the Air Force in World War II. But it's from the same producers of the Pacific. and Band of Brothers. So they have an Army one. They have a Marines-centered show, and now it's the Air Force. And you would absolutely love any and all of those, actually, but they're all based in World War II. Oh, interesting. You'll have to text those to me because I'll forget.

You'll text me in like a week and be like, did you watch it? I'll be like, I've never heard of that before in my life. Yeah. Okay. I'll make a note to text you after. Yeah. And I'll have to log back into my Apple TV, now that I'll. know that I still have. I got it when I had T-Mobile, it came with it. And I thought when I

canceled my T-Mobile plan that I didn't have Apple TV, but maybe it just switched over to my card information. And it like, you're paying for, I'll tell you right now, you're paying for something because I have access to it. That's so funny. That's good to know. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories. and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen.

Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Okay, back to Palau and how it became one of the bloodiest battles. Like I said, it turned into one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific, and it lasted for over two months. The United States eventually won the battle. but it was not without a huge cost. The exact numbers are hard to verify as it changes depending on the resources that you read. And I read a lot of conflicting data.

But most reference a range that is estimated to be that around 1,800 U.S. soldiers lost their lives in, while another 8,000 were injured. Wow. Okay. So quite high compared to the initial thought of we're in, we're out in four days. Like we're in, we'll take it over. it'll be fine. And it wasn't just the U.S. that had a major loss. I mean, 1,800 people, that's a huge amount of people. But the Japanese lost a lot of people, too. They lost nearly

every single one of their soldiers, amounting to almost 11,000 people killed. Oh, my God. Yeah. And 200 and two of them were detained as prisoners. So there's this huge, I mean, it was horrific. There were a lot of people who were dying. And many of the Americans who died there. When they died in action, a lot of them actually died before they even got to the islands because they were shot out of the sky. Or some of them were brought to remote parts of the island and executed in secret. The people who were on the islands. Some of them were shot out of the planes and then thought to have survived the plane crash and then were executed later. So it was just really horrific and bloody all around for both sides. And of course, for the American side, as Americans,

It's especially hard when we hear that we lost so many people, but also that we lost so many people who have never been found. For many of these men's, their remains have not been found, and the search for them has long been terminated, and that was until recent years. Today, we're going to talk about the stories of trying to bring these soldiers home, and in particular, we're going to focus on an event that happened on September 1st, 1944. On September 1st, 1944, a B-24 bomber aircraft named the Arnett B-24, after the pilot, who was on board, Jack S.M. Arnett, was flying with 11 servicemen over Palau to conduct a mission. B-24 planes were massive, weighing about 36 tons empty, and was designed to carry heavy loads long distance, but was known to have a particularly bumpy ride.

So they were not fun to ride in at all. they would throw you around, thrash you around. And because of this, it earned the nickname the Pregnant Cow and the Flying Coffin. And that was great. Not like, hey, everyone want to jump in the Flying Coffin today? And it was named this one for its size because it was just massive. And it was nicknamed the Flying Coffin because it tended to catch fire under attack. And the corridors of the plane were so cramped that it made it very difficult for pilots wearing a parachute to actually.

to actually escape the plane, which is why it was called the Flying Coffin. However, there were advantages to the plane, which is why they were using them. And its advantage in the Pacific was its ability to fly long distances between the Japan-occupied islands. So especially coming from the United States, flying all the way across the Pacific and then going to different islands. That was a huge plus for them. This B-24 that we're talking about today was carrying a young crew on board with agents. ranging from just 20 years old to 29 years old. And this plane wasn't flying alone.

They were with 14 other B24 planes flying in formation with them. And on this particular day, it was a crystal clear day. And they flew at about 17,000 feet towards their enemy target over Palau. But just as they flew overhead, they took two direct hits to their left wing. On impact, their number two engines burst into flames. And as they were trained to do, they released the bombs. on board and fell out of formation. Following that, at least two members on board were seen parachuting out.

And after that, Lieutenant Arnett was seen banking a right and attempt to, it sounds like he was attempting by banking right. He was attempting to try and keep the flames engulfed in one area instead of spreading across the flames around the plane, which was a maneuver that was explained in the resources I was reading. Okay. A little bit more in depth than that. But basically, he was trying to finagle.

the plane on fire, but while he was doing that, the left wing folded and broke off. Next, their comrades around watched as the plane spiraled towards the ocean below before the fuselage broke into and then crashed into the water. Some reports say that the same people that jumped from the plane were seen being picked up by Japanese boats. All 11 crew members were not able to be rescued and were declared missing in action. After one year and one day, they were officially declared killed in action and their bodies were never recovered. This, of course, left families heartbroken, but also left them without answers. What happened to the men who were seen jumping? Did any of them survive the initial crash? These questions would haunt families for generations wondering what happened to

their loved ones. Did they make it out? Did they suffer amnesia after head injury and never find their way home? Where they held as prisoners before being released and started a new life in another country. These glimmers of hope bled through the label of killed in action because there were so many unanswered questions. And these questions would remain unanswered for years until a man named Pat Scanan visit Palau and became inspired to find them. Before we dive deep into the mission to find these missing men, I want to really introduce everyone to Palau and why this location is National Park related, because I think probably at this point people are like, okay, we're in Palau. We have not mentioned a word of a national park on national park after dark. Like what's going on here? Well,

Palau is not a national park. However, it does have significant ties to the United States National Park Service. So before we dive into our story, we're going to talk about the location, how the National Park Service is involved, and why U.S. soldiers were there during World War II, which I already kind of mentioned for that. First off, Palau is an archipelago of over 340 islands and is part of the Micronesia region of the Western Pacific Ocean. And it is absolutely stunning there. There are volcanic and coral tropical islands surrounded by crystal blue teal waters and they have a massive barrier reef system that encircles most of the archipelago. Because of this, Palau is considered some of the world's most incredible scuba diving locations in the entire world. It is home to more

species of marine life than any other similarly sized region in the world. They have approximately 400 species of hard coral, 300 species of soft coral, and over 1,400 species of reef fish. It is also home to seven of the nine species of the world's giant clams, thousands of invertebrates, many of which still need to be identified, and it is also the world's most isolated colony of dugons, which are relatives to sea cows. They look really similar to manatees, so they're down there, and it is also home to Micronesia's only saltwater crocodiles. Oof. Okay. Scary. I mean, that's fine. I just don't want to swim there. I don't want to. Yeah, you were really selling the scuba for a second until that part.

Yeah. I'm like a drowning cat in water. I can't scuba diving and me don't get along. I can't even snorkel. Okay. Well, you know what I was just thinking about today, actually? What? And I was laughing to myself. So I'm researching a water-based story, which, will come out in a few weeks, so I won't give too much away. But it triggered a memory of us in South Africa snorkeling with seals, which I really enjoyed other than the conditions were a little choppy. That is very underestimating what was happening. Well, it was just so funny because Cassie and I, like, there was two boats that went out and I was on one and Cassie was on another with, you know, obviously people from our group. And so we head off like, okay, bye, have a great time.

Come back. And like, wow, that was like so amazing. Like, that was so fun. And Cassie was like, looked like she's just been through it and like went to war. And it was like, she was like, I was in, I was in for maybe one minute. And I got right back into the boat. And bring the scuba stuff or the snorkeling stuff with me. I was like, there's no way. I jumped in the water. Okay, just for context, these small little choppy waters were massive waves that were slamming into rocks next to us. Many people were puking because they were so sick. And I asked the captain if the weather was normally like that and if the waves were like that. And he goes, oh, no.

He's like, I already canceled all the other trips for today. He's like, I wouldn't have a job if we were bringing people out like this. Okay. So, well, I didn't know that was not the... That's not the norm. But I felt like I was definitely struggling for sure. When we came back into shore, we had to stop before the waves broke. And he stopped and he turned around and he was like, all right, the waves are pretty bad.

I'm going to have to full throttle it into the beach. And you're going to have to hold on tight because we're going to be thrown and this boat is going to tip. So just hold on for your life. We're going in. And then he full throttled it onto the beach. And I was like, I'm going to, I'm going to die here. And like, I'm already having an awful. full time and now you're going to catapult me into the sand. Yeah, I have never held on to something

so hard in my entire life. It's just so funny because I was just literally just thinking about that hours ago and the snorkeling experience and being with the seals and I'm like, oh, I think I have some videos of that. And they're not good. Like they would never make a social media post ever because the person filming it is fighting for their life. The people in the frame are like spitting a I kind of feel like it needs to make a make a, I actually have a really funny video of Al and he's, someone took a video of him because it wasn't me. I was in the boat. Someone else took a video of him on the trip. And he was like bobbing in the air, bobbing in the water. And he gets like whipped in the face with a wave in the middle of it. So. Oh, man. Good times. Good times. It's, it's type two fun. It's really fun now that we're not on the boat anymore. I think one person on my boat threw up or was very close. Our guide threw up on my boat. And then we had like three other people, but he was like, he was really having a hard time. Yeah, well, you wouldn't think, like, for some reason, I knew obviously we were going to be taking a boat to go out to the location to snorkel.

But like I didn't even think about taking Tramamine. It didn't even cross my mind. Yeah, I feel like I did take it. I feel like I did take Dramamine, but Dramamine was no match for what we faced that day. Yeah. And then I remember we got there just one last. thing we got there and we're all wearing life jackets on the boat and then we get there there's these huge waves that are coming in and then he's like all right everyone take off your life jackets

your wetsuits are buoyant so they'll like oh yeah help keep you above water so i like slowly take my life jacket off like they're trying to kill me and then i was the last one out of the boat too everyone jumped in everyone was excited and then he was like get off the boat like i got to get out of here because he couldn't keep the boat where we were because the waves were so big so he had to like go further out into the ocean and then I swam there for like I'll give myself four minutes and then I like waved him back to come get me because I mean the water was also extremely cold yeah and I mean the thing I was worried about the most was not though I mean the waves were intense they were a lot like and we were close to the the rock face like the cliff side yeah

I'm like god if you get caught in that like you're screwed like yeah That was my biggest fear. And the seals were right next to the. My biggest thing I was like, is anyone going to mention the sharks? Because we are in the great white capital of the freaking world in this particular bay. Like we had just the day or two before. Among seals, not even next them. We were in the group of seals.

I was like, I've seen Shark Week and Nat Geo and Animal Planet and any discovery. Every shark week you've ever seen. And, you know, though, shows that of the Great Whites, that breach. Yeah. That is filmed where we were. Perfect. And it's like this special behavior that they're like, they hunt in this particular way, only in, you know, off the coast of South Africa. And there we were.

And not a word was mentioned about it. Maybe it was somewhere buried in our waiver that we signed. Maybe. It's like, by the way. By the way, you're also going to be. There is a 50-50 chance. It was just like. That, and there's no way you would have been able to see. First of all, you can't even see anything.

And then anything that was brushing up against you or like biting at your flipper, I'm like, I really hope that's a seal because any like dark shadow that went underneath you. See, I wasn't in there long enough to experience anything biting my flipper. I was in out, but All right. Let's get back to Pillow because we're getting really off. We are derailing, but I will say that this is a heavy scuba diving episode, which because of these plane crashes a lot of times take place in the water. So it's not totally up track, but it is outside the story. Back to the islands. The islands themselves contain the largest undisturbed forest and largest freshwater lake in Micronesia,

along with 70 unique marine lakes. And now how and why is Palau and the country that is so far from here connected to the United States National Park Service, which I had the same question and I will explain. The National Park Service through scientific research over the years has learned just how important the oceans are for the entire planet. When the ocean is not doing well in one part of the world, it can significantly affect other parts as well, which is why the National Park Service manages 88 ocean and Great Lake Parks

across 23 countries and four territories. But they don't stop there. They also participate in a global effort to help support other conservation marine areas. The National Park Service Office of International Affairs coordinates partnerships worldwide. And they post a more precise reason on their website and they state, since the beginning of time, our well-being has been closely tied to the ocean and its health. Oceans cover two-thirds of the earth. They are the main source of the air that we breathe since they produce most of our oxygen.

Oceans also provide us with high-protein foods and medicine, and they play a major role in regulating the weather and climate. It is critical that we work together to protect our oceans from the numerous threats to their health, such as overfishing, pollution, and climate change because this all ultimately impacts us and our well-being. And they go on to say, an example of such is the National Park Service's partnership with the Republic of Palau. Under this partnership, the National Park Service is assisting Palau in Island Nation in the Western Pacific, with managing their protected area network and planning for future visitor use. A memorandum of Understanding was signed in April of 2022 during a ceremony,

at, I don't know how to pronounce this, Gardock National Reserve in Melakook State, home to the largest body of freshwater in Micronesia region and a variety of species native to Palau. The site is now serving as the marine pilot site for sustainable visitor use planning framework that will be applied to other protected areas in Palau, such as the Rock Islands Lagoon,

one of UNESCO's 50 Marine World Heritage Sites. The United States, through the National National, Park Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been an active participant in the UNESCO Marine World Heritage Site Manager's Group. So that is my very long-winded way of saying that there is a reason I'm telling the story and it does have National Park Times. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for sharing. I was kind of holding my breath the whole time. I don't know why. Nerve-wracking. You're like, I was like, wow, it just goes a long time. Yeah. So I mean, it does. the National Park Service and there is a national marine sanctuary that is within Palau too. So there are

huge conservation efforts that are going on there. Well, it sounds like, and correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like the nation of Palau or the island of Palau is trying to get going with some sort of eco-tourism or if they're putting all these protections in place and kind of getting this framework of you know, making sure that their environment is safeguarded and maybe trying to get some attention towards the beauty of it and all that. Definitely. And part of that too is because it's one of the best scuba diving places in the world. I think that that has brought to their attention that they need a conservation system in sight

or just planned out because they have so many people visiting their coral reefs and seeing their fish and all of that. And also because they're in such a well area, fishing needs to be regulated. too. So there's a lot of efforts that are going on and ecoterrorism is definitely, definitely a big part of it. Okay, now back to our story. It was 1993 when Pat Scanan first learned of B24 bombers in Palau. He was in his mid-40s working for a biotech company in California. And at the time, he was working 60-hour weeks with an hour commute back and forth. And each week was repetitive. And he kind of fell into this routine that wasn't exactly exciting. So when a coworker and friend approached, him with the idea of going to Palau on a scuba trip, something both him and his wife loved to do, he was all in for the adventure. His co-worker devised a plan to find a sunken Japanese ship off the coast and make a documentary of the find. This ship was particularly interesting because it had never been located, but also because this ship was one that President Bush sank during

his time in the military, and it was also his first kill in the military. The documentary was just part of the adventure they were planning because Palau had been rumored to have lost treasure estimated to be worth $100 billion. What? Yes. So Palau has a huge treasure there, which has brought a lot of people there. And his friend's idea was that they wanted to come film this documentary that they thought would get a lot of publicity, especially because it involved one of our presidents.

And they would use the profits from that documentary to fund their treasurer. treasure hunts in Palau. Okay, what kind of treasure are we talking about? That's worth $100 billion or whatever. So it sounds like, and I didn't go into like huge detail of the treasure, but it sounds like during the war, there was some ships that had some, a lot of gold and jewels and stuff that were on it. And it was, it is now today worth $100 billion. And I even double like Googled like $100 billion. Are you sure? It's like a question mark because I feel. like that's a lot of money. Well, not only is that a lot of money, I feel like any sort of treasure worth that amount of money would gain a lot of attention or I feel like does it because I've

never heard of it. You've never heard of it, but down there and I read a book that I'll reference a lot. It's called Vanished, the missing, the six year search for missing men. And so they reference a lot of, not a lot, but a little bit in there. Just to say that. locals don't really love treasure hunts. And if you come down there looking for treasure, they won't help you. They won't be like, I know where that shipwreck is. I know where this is. Like it's kind of an annoyance for people who actually live there. I would imagine. Yeah. Yeah. But $100 billion. So this becomes a treasure hunt, basically. And Pat Scannon wasn't that I mean, he was enthralled with the idea of a treasure and all of this like down on this tropical

island and scuba diving and the adventure of it. But it wasn't, he mostly, he was just trying to get away from his 60-hour work week and like to have some type of fun adventure. And he was so excited for it that him and his wife actually planned an extension of the trip and he would go with his co-workers. He would go help film this documentary, go try and find this ship. And then him and his wife would stay longer and they would get their own scuba diving tours together. And when they went down, they had a whole team for the documentary. Their team consisted of experts too. They had these very well-known historians that came with them. They had pro scuba divers, and they had a TV crew with them that could film underwater. So it was pretty like, it was a serious

thing that they were doing. And to their surprise with a combination of old photos, World War II maps, and some technology, they found the ship they were searching for surprisingly quick. When their mission was done to find the ship that President Bush had sunk, Pat picked up his wife, Susan, to begin their own adventure. And now Pat was inspired by this trip and he was inspired to see more World War II wreckage. When he had seen the sunken ship from the Japanese, it was like seeing a moment in time, this moment frozen in time where it was untouched. No one had touched it since the day it sunk and it was there. And so they decided to hire a local guide to bring them to the sites less known and the ones with more history. Because generally when people go there scoop diving, you hire a guide, you go to these big tourist destinations that have these amazing corporations that have these amazing corporations. Rheafs with amazing wildlife and they kind of pivoted that to be like, okay, I coral reefs are cool, but I want to see the World War II wreckage. So they hire a guide and they go out on this boat ride and a boat ride was significantly longer than they expected. And when the guide slowly approached this little island that was not much bigger than a house, in way steep water not far from

where they were, they saw a massive strip of metal at least 50, feet long. When they jumped into the water and got a closer look, they could see it was clearly the wing of an aircraft. A few feet away was a second engine attached to the wing, and then in English, they saw the words and narrow electric. It was in this moment that they realized that this was not a Japanese plane, this was an American one. And they were also realizing in this moment that they were not only in the location of an American crash site, but they were in the location of an American grave site. After searching the area for more wreckage and finding nothing,

they returned to the boat, and Pat asked the guide the story of the plane. He didn't seem to know anything. And when they returned to town, he asked locals if anyone knew what happened to that plane who was on it, if anyone had come back for the soldiers, if anyone had survived, anything to answer the questions that were in his head. And to each person he talked to,

no one seemed to have any idea about the story behind the plane. Most people seemed to know that it existed, but no one knew the story behind it. And all these questions filled his mind. Did anyone know of this plane? Had anyone in the United States come to find the people in it? Was there a record of what happened anywhere? Were the remains of the people who were on board still in the plane? When they returned back to California, these questions haunted him and he couldn't shake the feeling that he needed to find these answers.

He began searching for any records he could that could help him identify. the plane and through his research he discovered more. Based on what he had seen with the wing, it had to be a part of a B-24 Liberator. The Army Air Forces had flown liberators in the area of Palau, most notably in 1944. He extended his research to contact World War II veterans, which led him to an old photo. A military photographer had captured the very moment a B-24 was plummeting towards the islands in flames, and when Pat examined the photo, he realized, it was taken in the same bay that him and Susan had seen the wing.

This photo even captured the moment the plane was losing its wing, but there was a problem. This plane was losing the wrong wing. It was not the wing that he had seen in the water. This led to the discovery that not won, but three B24 planes went down

in the area that he was in and there was much more wreckage than he could have imagined. Pilots, William Dixon, Jack Arnett and Glenn Custer all had their plane shot down in that region. He discovered the wing he had found was from William Dixon's plane. He found photos and reports that detailed the crashes, at least partially. Up to 30 men were lost in what he discovered was a span of days. And there were pictures for William Dixon

and for Glenn Custer, but for Jack Arnett, there was no photo that he could find of the crash. And another thing that really caught his eye and his interest was no one from those planes had ever been recovered. And this deeply troubled him. He was really upset for the service members who lost their lives and for the family members left not knowing. And because of that, it inspired a search that would take decades. It wasn't long before Pat was back on the island, this time with a totally new motive. No documentaries, no treasure hunting or anything like that. This time, he was there to find down planes and hopefully the missing people who once occupied them. Instead of going in blind and Sully using the information he had from the research he had done, which he did have maps and he had photos that he had obtained, he decided the best resource that he had was the Palluan people and the locals who lived there.

So instead of just going off of the knowledge that he thought he had, he decided to ask around and it led to some answers. On the island of Coror, which is part of Palau, he wandered the neighborhoods asking if anyone knew the whereabouts of the old American World War II planes. Specifically, he would show them the photos and the maps he had, and he would tell them about the three that he was looking for. He would show the pictures he had of the plans going down and asked if they had seen that plane or if they knew that area that the picture was taken in. Two full days of searching and asking dozens of people yielded no results. But then he met someone named Xavier March. Xavier led him through the jungle to a beach where a piece of metal, the size of a car, lay in the wall. water surf. It was the cockpit of William Dixon's plane that he led him to. This plane went down two weeks

before the Battle of Pelaloo took place when him, along with 10 others, were shot out of the sky on August 28, 1944, at approximately 11.52 a.m. It had caught fire and lost its right wing, and it broke off into flames. Before it ultimately crashed, a person was seen jumping from the plane, but their shoot never opened. The plane was last seen plummeting towards Coror, and when the plane and none of the members returned, everyone on board was listed as missing in action. Finding this piece of the plane was huge. It was another part of the wing that he had seen before, and it was really exciting for him. But quickly, that excitement turned to a solemn realization that he was standing most likely in the same place that William Dixon had lost his life, along with the other members who were on board. It was

also very likely that his remains were still there and close by. But the information that Xavier knew that would help Pat and his search didn't stop just there. He knew a man named Ichkawa, Tadashi, who had been there during World War II and he had watched another B-24 go down somewhere in the Southern Bay. This Pat knew from his research had to be the plane of Glen Custer. Xavier agreed to introduce him to this man. Tadashi not only saw the B-24 plane that Pat was looking for, but he was. He was was partially hit by it in the crash, and he bore a long scar down his forehead from it. During the battles taking place on Coror, he was forced to flee his home and sought refuge in a nearby cave. Usually during the airstrikes, he would hide out inside the cave until it was over, but one day

in May of 1945, he was out foraging when the strikes began. He tried to find shelter in a patch of mangroves, but it was no use. He watched an American B-24 bomber get struck on the left wing, break off, and then he watched with nowhere to go as the fuselage of the plane barreled in his direction. It hit the earth not far from him and the impact sent shards of metal flying, hitting him in the face, arm, and thigh. Which is just insane that Pat came across him to, like, through talking to people, it's like, yeah, I know where your plane is because I was hit by it and I was there the day. Like, I am living history of what you're looking for.

And he literally bears the scars of that day and how horrific it was there. And after having a conversation with him, he agreed to show Pat where the wing landed and where the fuselage was. They took a boat ride through the islands, past the same bay that he had originally seen Dixon's wing, and to an island called Iborer. And sure enough, the wing was still there. It had landed on a cliffside on the island. After seeing and confirming it was what he was looking for, they continued on to the fuselage. They arrived at a mangrove inlet to which right away he saw the debris and the shallow water. He waded past it to the shore where he found a piece of landing gear.

In just two days, with the help of the local people, he was able to find two of the three planes he had been searching for. And he was filled with motion at each site. Realizing these places held a significant part of history, the death place of American soldiers, but this was also the answers to family members who had been long awaiting to know what happened to their level. here was where it told the story of what really happened that day. And he was really excited and sad to find these, but he was also feeling really motivated because he had more to do. And that was he still had no idea where Arnett's B-24 plane was.

And that's the plane crash that I detailed at the beginning of this episode. He had to leave the island the following day, but not finding Arnette's plane only made him want to look for it more. He was sure it was in the channel somewhere, and he told himself that he would scour the bottom for as long as he needed until he found it. What he didn't realize was just how long that would actually take. Unlike the other two planes, he had no photos of the crash when it happened. After exploring the islands to him, it seemed that the reports of the location of the crash were improbable. Reports said that it crashed within the narrow channel of all these names are hard to pronounce, but tocial mid, one of the busy.

throughways in the archipelago. But the problem with that was that hundreds of boats passed through this area every single day, but still 50 years later, no one had ever reported seeing the wreckage. And when he asked about it, no one knew of it. Or said anything. Yeah. It's like, okay, if it's in the busiest channel in these islands, why has no one seen a piece of metal or a wing or known anything about this? Along with that, the witness reports of the crash were very vague and only consistent. of a few words, which was different from the other crashes. There were photos, there were full witness reports of what had happened, and for this crash,

there was almost nothing. So he knew that if he was ever going to find this plane, he would need to find new information himself, and he would probably need to find new witnesses who weren't on any record that he could find. He started with calling veterans who were there during the war, but he realized quickly that time wasn't on his side. All of the veterans were getting older. When he would call, he would find out.

that some of them had already died, some of them very recently, and others had lost their memory. This created more of an urgency to find people. He was working on a time clock and worried that the lives of the people who still had information that would be helpful may be over soon. This resulted in him finding the veteran reunion group called the Long Rangers, who he interviewed extensively. He would even go to their homes and found one person who had seen both the Dixon and the Arnett crashes. This man remembered the days and crashes vividly and confirmed seeing two people parachute out of the Arnett plane

before it crashed into the water. But he had no recollection of exactly where it had happened in Palau. Pat Scannon went back to the islands again in 1995 for a whole week. But after storms that rampaged for four of the days and a plane mission to take photographs over the area he believed it may have crashed, yielded no results. He went back to the islands again. a short time after in 1996, and again found no plane. He then took a break from the project for two years,

and in the summer of 1998, he returned. Again, he found nothing. Then in 1999, him and a team searched the Tochel Mid-Channel for six days, dragging a side-scan-scan sonar device to help find any signs of the wreckage. This trip brought no signs of the arnett. However, they found several pieces of wreckage from other American planes and trawlers opening up a whole new world of possibilities. While he had been searching for three planes, this would spark the need to eventually search for hundreds more. And an article featured in Parade Magazine detailing what he had been doing would only fuel that need even more. After that article was released, families had read that article and calls came flooding in from them. And a lot of them were relatives of the missing people from World War II.

One in particular was a family member of Jimmy Doyle, a 25-year-old nose gunner or the person who operates the machine guns on the front of the aircraft, who was on the B-24-R-Net the day it was shot down. His disappearance left his wife and his infant son devastated, and now they had contacted Pat Scanmon. After meeting with Jimmy Doyle's son, Tommy Doyle, he discovered there were a lot of unknowns about his father's death. They had actually held on to hope that Jimmy was still alive. They even had people confirm seeing him. There were rumors that he had started a new life and started a new family in California. Family members of the Doyles even drove all the way to California to look for him, and neighbors confirmed that they had seen him there,

but they never found out for certain if the rumors were true because they never saw the man that they had come to find. For them, it seemed unfathomable that he would actually do that, especially because while he was away in war, he was a dedicated husband who wrote to his wife Myrtle every chance he got in detail of how he missed her and his son. So to think he just up and left to them for a new family was like, what's going on? Did he, they even toyed with the idea of like amnesia, forgot his family, started, just all of these glimmers of hope that he was still alive. And I think they kind of held on to that because there were these sightings of him.

It's like, oh, if people are seeing him, then maybe he really, he really is alive. I mean, we've seen that as of most recently in the story of Joe Halpern and his family, who in their heart of hearts, were like, he probably disappeared and suffered some sort of accident within the National Park. But, you know, in the aftermath and people are coming forward from everything from he joined the circus to the CCC or maybe he's in a cult and all of these different things, like those are leads that seem. improbable, but impossible to not follow through with. Especially if you're a loved one. If you're a loved one, like if that's your person or your family, it doesn't matter what you think probably happened. You have to go down those other routes.

Like, how do you sleep at night if you don't? If there's hope out there, you're going to open those doors and see if there really is. And that's what they were going on. But the problem with this is that his son, Tommy Doyle, for a long time, he thought his dad left him and abandoned him because of these rumors that were going on. So it was kind of a double-edged. It's like he's alive, but he left us for another family. And to have this conversation with Pat was just another reason why he wanted to find these answers. And in order to do this more efficiently and to be taken more seriously, Pat put together an organization that he called the Bent Prop Project and gave it

the slogan for the fallen at the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will. We will. remember them. Pat continued his search for the B-24-R-Net, but years went by and he still hadn't gotten any closer. He came across other things, other-downed aircraft, debris, and even a mass grave site where mostly Palluan people had been murdered, but it was thought a few American prisoners of war were executed there as well. And as the Bent Prop project had grown, they created teams of people searching for multiple aircrafts and teams of divers who were helping out. The project had also formed a relationship with the military and use their labs to help identify objects and bring home any remains if they were found. And then DNA lab testing and things through the military were

conducted through them. There was an overwhelmingly positive response to the work that was being done. And in 2002, US Marine Corp, Jim Jones, wrote Pat a personal note that read, I want to express my sincere gratitude to the Bent Prop Project for your altruistic quest to locate the servicemen who fought in World War II and have been declared missing in action in the jungles and waters surrounding the Republic of Palau. For more than half a century, the fates of hundreds of these men have remained concealed beneath sand and silt, encrusted in coral, or shrouded by leaves and vines, while loved ones have lived with the pain of not knowing.

Through your tireless efforts, the families and friends of many of these brave airmen have finally achieved closure. And there was success in there. There were success in their missions, but, still the Arnett was nowhere to be found and Pat was determined. Pat and the project. It was like kind of his like great white buffalo. Yeah, it's white buffalo. He needed, he needed to find this particular one. And he wasn't going to give up. It wasn't until 2003, 10 years after the beginning of searching, that they found the most promising clue that he had yet. He was going through the

archives of the battle at the National Archives in College Park in Maryland. When he came across images he had never seen before, him and two others came across massive 12 by 12 film negatives from the day that the Arnett went down that showed images of the islands and when they looked really closely images of the plane. There were 10 negatives in total and within them were these tiny little dots of images of planes and one of them he saw was the net and it was the first photo he saw and it was taken moments before it crashed. So this was the very first time he saw the location of where it crashed. And the location indicated that it was on the west side of the island of Balbadobe, which happened to be the same area. Him and his wife had

found Dixon's wing in 1993. Now during that time they also saw a propeller, which I kind of briefly stated they saw two pieces. And at the time, he didn't think that it was linked to the Arnett. He thought it was just either part of the Dixon or something else and he didn't put it together. But now these photos were indicating something completely different. And within these photos, he realized that for the past 10 years, he had been searching in the wrong area of the islands. Shortly after discovering that, they headed back to Palau, and this time with a new plan to find the arnet. The team put together permits and gathered equipment and they used Photoshop to import the images they had found and superimposed them over a map of Palau. Then they

use the images of the plane and the line drawing tool to predict where the arnette would have crashed. Five days into their preparations, they got a lead from a local who was there and saw the Arnette go down and could detail the location as well. And then another lead popped up, a fisherman who knew the area well had seen a huge jumble of metal embedded in one of the coral heads in the region that they were looking to search. And he showed them the spot on the map that they had drawn. And it was exactly where it was like smack dab in the middle of their next search spot. On January 26th, after 10 days of preparation, the bent prop team boarded a boat for their first dive to look for the Arnette in the new location. It was only a couple of minutes into the dive when Pat resurfaced.

to hear the shouts of people calling out, they found something. When he dive back down, he saw his crew holding on to a propeller wedged into the side of some coral. Following that, down a steep side of coral on the ocean floor, was an aircraft engine with a second propeller attached to it and the right wing below that was the wing of a B-24 wing. He had finally, after 10 years, found the Arnett. When they resurfaced, the bent prop team gathered on board shouting and hugging each other and realized that they had finally located what they were looking for.

And they could now really start the search for the remains of the falling soldiers that their families, who they had been in contact with, had been looking for. Pat asked for a moment of silence and then from his backpack, he pulled out a small American flag and then a Palluan flag. The team then stretched them over the foredeck, and Pat recited, two stanzas from a poem written by Lawrence Binion for fallen soldiers. He said, They went with the songs to the battle they were young, straight of limb, true of eye, steady and a glow. They were staunched to the end against odds uncounted. They fell with their faces to the foe. They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not worry them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.

A second dive revealed the tail of the plane, along with ammunition, and other military parts that belong to the B-24. Pat wanted to call Jimmy Doyle's son Tommy and tell him of his discovery. But because the project operated along with the military, the military had strict rules about official identification of aircrafts and telling family members. So he wasn't allowed to be the person to do that. On the Bent Prop website, it simply stated an update that they had found a B-24 plane near the island. Linde of Corr and a few other very vague details. Tommy's wife Nancy happened to read the article a few months later and called Pat immediately with Tommy, asking if they had found his father's plane. Pat couldn't confirm any of this because of the military regulations, but instead he detailed

everything they found and exactly what the plane looked like. And from his description, they knew it was the same plane as Tommy's dad, Jimmy Doyle, who had been on it. He asked to see it and Pat told him, that if he got certified to scuba dive, that he would take him to the wreckage site on a planned trip in a few months. And Tommy agreed, and over the next few months, he enrolled in a class and became scuba certified.

Tommy and his wife had hardly ever left their home state of Texas before, but they didn't hesitate to buy the flights and travel across the world to see this plane. It wasn't long after they landed that Tommy was in the water, staring at the wreckage of the plane that his father had been in.

While it hadn't been discovered yet, Tommy was swimming directly next to his father's remains. More dives revealed human remains and after two years of extensive DNA testing in a lab in Hawaii, on February 9, 2009, 8 of the men on the aircraft's remains were identified. Among those was Jimmy Doyle. Their remains were brought home to their families and a memorial service was held. They were buried in a group burial site at the Arlington National Cemetery where they were honored for their military service. Now today, the Bent Prop Project has changed names to Project Recover, and it has grown exponentially

and is currently working on projects around the world to recover Americans' mission in action since World War II. There are documentaries that show the work they have done, including video footage of parts of this story today. They are called The Last Flight Home and To What Remains. And for this story, I used a combination of those documentaries articles and a book titled Vanished the Six-Yearsts, Search for the Missing Men of World War II by Will Ells Hilton. And I will say that that book, another book recommendation for people, I highly recommend it. There is so much that is not included in this whole story today. That is within that book. Like, it's insane how much is in that book, actually, just between the research that goes into World War II, the missions

that were being conducted, all of the work from not just Pat Scannon, but all of his colleagues that were involved that I didn't mention just because there's a lot of names and it gets like a little bit confusing in an audio format. But so highly recommend this if you're interested in World War II and the subject. The book is written so well and it's so easy to follow along and it's just so detailed. But also in addition to this book, if this story has particularly interested you, we have some exciting news because we have an interview that is coming up on Thursday of this week, the Thursday following the date of this release, where we will be speaking with Derek Abbey, who is the president and CEO of Project Recovery, where he will be giving us an inside look

and answering our questions about the missions that have taken place over the years and how involved it is to complete these recoveries, and he is also a close friend of Pat Scanan. So direct interview to correlate this entire story. Wow, what a tale. And I can, I mean, I can attest to at least one of those sources that you spoke about because I haven't read the book or the first documentary you mentioned. But to what remains is the documentary that Cassie and I watched together in preparation for our discussion with Derek Abbey. And it is amazing. And I mean, we watch a lot of documentaries and different things for the show. So we've seen our fair share.

And this one in particular is not only is it very moving just because of the subject matter, of course. It's even if you don't have ties to the military, it's obviously, you know, it's a human thing. You can relate to the strife that people experience. But just as a production, it's just an incredibly well done documentary. So, and you can access it on YouTube for free. Yeah. And with the other documentary that I mentioned, the last flight home, they actually have video footage of Tommy Doyle seeing the wreckage of his dad's playing for the first time. It's super, it's emotional and it's really happy that he's getting closure and then it's really sad.

And it's just they pull at the heartstrings so well because you just feel for this family so much. But what they're doing, Project Recover and the Bent Prop Project before this is just incredible. It's amazing what they're doing and the community that they're serving and just the closure that they're bringing to these families who I kind of mentioned at the beginning of this episode that there is a pledge within the military service that no soldiers left behind. And in this particular circumstance in World War II, there were so many reasons why people weren't recovered. And now it's really time. It's been too long. These people need to come home. Their families have questions and they need to have a proper, proper ceremony.

and grieve properly for the people that were lost, and that's exactly what they're doing. So it's a really cool interview that we're doing on Thursday. If this was an episode that spoke to you, we have basically a part two with the people who are really involved in these stories in this project. Amazing. Well, thank you for going into detail on that story because, like you mentioned, it was briefly touched upon in the documentary because there's other stories that are involved in other aspects.

There's kind of a lot of moving parts, but it was just kind of touched upon. So to get more information about it was cool to kind of fill in the blanks a little bit and get more of a human side to the story other than just logistics of dates and times. Right. Yeah. So, oh, wow. Kind of a heavy one, right? Definitely a heavy one. But an interesting subject.

And I mean, I just think back in World War II, it's not that long ago. I mean, people are still alive who fought in World War II. So it's not long enough where families have forgotten by any. means and that is trickling down to other people and we'll talk about that more on Thursday. But it was an interesting episode and a great book if people are looking for a new book to read. But yeah, that's all I have for this Monday's episode. Wow. Well, thank you for sharing and bringing us a World War II story.

I know it won't be your last. I just have a feeling. I love the World War II history. There's just so much, there's so many interesting parts to World War II. And it's all devastating. and sad, but there's also a lot of... There's a lot to be gleaned from that time in history. You know, there's a lot to be learned.

And I think we focus so much on, like, certain aspects of the war and why it was fought. And obviously, that's important. But there are so many other stories to be shared. Yes. And I think part of what makes it so interesting is because it was the war that took over the entire world. Everyone was involved. Everyone was affected. So there's just different perspicuous.

from all different parts of the world that were there and were impacted in all these mostly horrible ways. And the people, the survivors, the people who fought, the people who lost their lives, there's just so much intertwined in that history that there's just a lot to learn. And just like the by-s, I mean, like you mentioned, I forget his name. I'm so sorry, but the one that was injured. Yeah. You know, like you're not even directly on either side, like in combat, but you're still affected. His island was invaded. Yeah, right. Exactly. And just to know, I mean, again, I'm going back to the documentary again, but it just really highlights, like, a lot of the work that's done in that particular area. And of course, you can extrapolate that to other locations. A lot of the success rides on the help of locals who were severely impacted by different events like this. And yet, you know, they're still around and willing to help and wanting to do what they can for who they can. And I think that's just like a such an amazing. part of it as well. But okay, no more about it because I don't want to ruin anything about the interview. More on Thursday. All right, well, thank you everyone for listening. We hope you enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye, everyone. Bye.

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