After
successfully completing our mission on a P-38 pilot from the 71st Fighter Squadron I wrote a thank you note on the net to all of those who helped
us locate Jesse Ray Dorris. Jesse had been killed in action and as he was an
orphan his name had been left off of a memorial wall in
Roseville
California
. With the help of many
people on the net we were able to develop the information that we needed to
insure his rightful place in history. Then on January 11th e-mail came from Liz Wilson (ewilson@cell-tel.com) asking for help regarding her Uncle Carl Hoenshell who was also in the 71st.
Carl had been killed in action
6-10-44
and Carl's family never knew what happened to him. Timing was a little rough as I am a banker by profession and I had the State Banking Dept. and the FDIC coming in the next day. I e-mailed her that I would attach the Jesse story with all of the leads, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and the name of a great book called "An Escort of P-38s" along with the author John Mullins' name and e-mail address.
The following day Liz called me with a lot of emotion in her voice and said that not only was Carl's story in the book but she also talked to the wingman, Stub Hatch, who was with him the day he was killed in action. As she read me the events surrounding his death tears formed in my eyes. He was truly a hero who had led the enemy planes away from 2 crippled aircraft. While saving their lives he lost his. He and his wingman Stub Hatch had attacked 6 ME109s knowing full well they had no ammunition. They thought they could “scare them off”. Stub said, “they didn’t scare real well”, the last Stub saw of Carl he was leading the ME109s into the clouds. His body had never been recovered. I then e-mailed Elizabeth Wilson that we will find him. Bank examiners or not I decided I would devote at least 30 minutes per night to the project.
I
tried to find him through
Arlington
Michael.Patterson@Worldnet.Att.net.
I also tried people who might respond from
Yugoslavia
as there was a cemetery in
Belgrade
where Jesse was buried for
a short period of time USIS@libra, Darko.Martic@public.srce.hr, dde@nyquis and one guy who said he would help if he could Pkavran@aol.com. In looking through my Jesse records I found Carl’s name is on the wall at Florence American Cemetery and when I offered to take a picture when we go over there in May and send it to Liz Wilson she said that she might just meet us there. As of Feb 1st we still have no leads but I did find the President of Bulgaria's e-mail address which is President@President.BG. He in turn gave our e-mail to the Secretary of Defense priemna@mail.president.bg who said he would
work on it and get back to us in about 2 months. A letter was also sent to Mr.
Havas at the American Battle Monuments in
Washington
,
DC
. Waiting in patience is not
one of my virtues.
I have known Ralph Morgan for 28 years ever since I met him at the First Western Bank. Ralph
called today to say that Elizabeth Dosher from the Roseville Library wrote him
a note and included a copy of the Roseville Press-Tribune saying that the story
regarding Jesse was one of the top 5 stories in
Roseville
in 1997. What an honor to
have been involved in this mission. Ralph and I have been treated so well by
the people of
Roseville
that we almost feel like
natives. I only hope our new mission is as successful.
Because
of the problems in the Mid-East we decided against going to
Florence
for Memorial Day this year.
It is a shame that so few people in this world can create problems for so many.
In going through the AOL membership in
Bulgaria
I found an American from
Detroit
who is doing business
consulting in
Bulgaria
. Although he is only 27 and
the events we are discussing happened long before he was born he took an
interest in the project. His name is Bill Mays and his e-mail address is BulgTrvlr@aol.com.
I sent him a copy of the story and what we had on Carl and he said he would do
what he could. We also had a hot iron in the fire with Ted Darcy at wreck1@cntn.net.
Ted's records and contacts are extensive and I only wish I had known of him
when we were working on the Jesse project.
American
Battle Monuments responded in late February and gave us only the information
that we had already. E-mail from Bill said that he is contacting people in the
Peace Corps, but to no avail. There are many ways to
Foggia
from
Ploesti
and it is hard to stay in
the right direction with 6 ME109's on your tail.
In
an attempt to see of he was taken prisoner and died at a Stalag I contacted Jim
Taylor jtaylor@theworks.com who I found was writing a book. Then I found that Liz and Ted had already been
in contact with him. I guess I am getting old and slow.
The
first of March and Bill sends me e-mail regarding a recent conversation with
Steve Angel angel@online.bg.
A friend of Steve's is looking for information on a pilot who was shot down in
1943 or 1944 and stayed in
Bulgaria
until 1945. Not much to go
on other than his name, James and that he was from
Chicago
. I looked through the 71st roster but could not find any James or Chicago. I also looked into my Bible, An
Escort of P-38's, and found nothing. Steve said he would contact his friend,
Stoyanov, and get back to me.
On
March 7th Bill sent an E-mail saying that someone had come by his
office regarding a movie that he wanted to make. While they were talking the
subject of Carl came up. He seemed quite interested and returned later in the
day with a Book by Rumen Rumenin titled "Flying Fortresses over
Bulgaria
. Although Carl is not in
the book it was a very detailed story of the events in
Bulgaria
. The war office had
contacted him regarding the E-mail that I sent the President of Bulgaria. Rumen
believes that there are at least 8 Americans buried in the
British
Cemetery
near
Ruse
. Bill said that he did not
have a car but would see if he can get information.
A
week goes by and Bill reports that NO planes were shot down over
Bulgaria
on
June 10, 1944
. I don't know where John Mullins got his info but
it doesn't seem to check out. Jim Graham had been in contact with Stub who said
he was pretty certain all along that Carl had gone down over
Yugoslavia
, which now is
Croatia
. Bill says that there is a
mountain range there called Dinitsa and if that is where he went in it would be
difficult if not impossible to find him and get him out. I passed on the
information regarding the B-17 book to Jim Graham jnmig@email.msn.com who said
he would contact some B-17 outfits to see if there is any interest in getting
the book transcribed and published.
Liz
also sent a note to say that she had met a waitress in
Atlanta
from
Bulgaria
who might transcribe the
book for us. It is also nice to know that there are still people out there that
are interested in this quest.
Jim
wrote that one of the pilots with Carl the day he was shot down was John H.
Allen of
New Orleans
. I tried looking him up in the Ultimate White Pages
and could not find him. Searching through the death records on Family Tree
Maker I found a John Allen in
Louisiana
who passed away
3-3-94
who was born
9-7-22
Soc. sec # 436-42-1252.
Time
for new directions. In looking through the AOL Croatian list they all seem to
be about 15 to 22 years old. I found one promising person who, while she did
not live there, appeared to have some interest and did give me a couple of good
ideas. LovCroatia@aol.com
was
her address. I tried writing a note and attaching the story to a weekly
newspaper the called the Croatia Weekly Croatia-Weekly@hik.tel.hr.
It worked in
Roseville
why not
Croatia
? There is also a chat room for Croatians
complete with a bulletin board. I sent the story to the newspaper and put a
little information on the bulletin board. No luck, I guess they have more
problems dealing with today to bother with a problem from yesteryear.
It
is now late March and a call comes in from an excited Liz. Ted Darcy has come
through again with a lot of new info including the write up for the DSC
(Distinguished Service Cross). In the information it gives the co-ordinates
where he went down. After looking in
Bulgaria
and
Rumania
we find that he went down
near
Nis
Yugoslavia
the same as Jesse. I sent
them up to Jim Graham jnmig@email.msn.com who came back with his
thoughts. The last fix would indicate that he went down near a little town
called
Prokuplje
,
Yugoslavia
or now
Serbia
. The area is hilly and is
in a region called Kopaonik. He suggests that we find some UN peacekeepers in
the area and see if we can enlist their support.
New
direction time again. I found a bulletin board for
Yugoslavia
and put a request for
assistance on it. There was also a newspaper and I wrote to them as well. In
checking the AOL member directory under peacekeepers I found 2 leads. Major Jim
Beesley Rifleman6@aol.com and someone in
Washington
DC
Pmisp@aol.com that also is tied to the UN. Letters and stories were sent to both. I also
found the Chairman of Yugoslav missing persons at Minf@epi.yu; his name is Maksim Kovac it is
now the first week of April, I hope we can get this resolved by Memorial Day.
Looking
for Gruda and Kopaonik I found a beautiful web site about Kopaonik WWW.Yugoslavia.com as well as an E-mail address that I thought tied into that location, NENA@afrodita.rcub.bg.ac.yu.
I found that the party's name was Snezana Petrovic who works at night at a
newspaper. As I was emailing at
8:30 PM
and it was
5:30
AM
there. Now for the big problem as I do not know how to change a word document
to a text document that she can read. I wrote a short story and was advised
that they will get back to me tomorrow. She is in
Belgrade
not
Nis
but will see if she can
find someone there. I e-mailed Jeff for instructions on changing from word to
text and sent her the Carl Story.
Once
in awhile in life you get lucky. So many times you e-mail someone and they
ignore you. Sometimes they say they will do something and you never hear from
them again. Then there is Nena who in the rain went out and looked at
gravestones. In just one evening she is as interested in finding Carl as Bill
Mays in
Bulgaria
. She responded that she has
not viewed all of the graves but will soon. She also reported that gravesites
of 60 cemeteries are now combined in
Belgrade
and that there are 348
airmen buried there with 17 "known under God". She has been a Godsend
and she ended her e-mail with " please believe me… I will do my
best".
Mail
call! Got a letter today from John Mullins with an attachment from the
Air&Space magazine. It tells of a C87 (a cargo conversion of a B-24) that
crashed into a mountainside during WWII while flying the hump and had not been
found until now. It was an article written by William Jordan who is the
commander of CILHI at Hickham AFB Honolulu, Hawaii. It tells of the commitment
of that group to find and identify lost servicemen. I looked for an e-mail
address but struck out. Time to resort to the old fashion letter writing.
A
report from Nena shows the dates of death for each of the unknowns and none of
them tie in.
July 3, 1944
is as close as we can get.
Nena says she will talk to the caretaker on Monday as well as go the military
archives.
April 11,1998
as I turn on the computer I
notice that Bill is on line. Then the familiar "You've got mail" and
I find not one but 3 e-mails from Bill saying, "here it is". I IM
(instant mail) to Bill and say I haven't read the mail yet but will and get
back to him. On one there is a 6 page download with all sorts of information
regarding the dates and names of Allied pilots and where they went down. Among
them is a
6-10-44
entry with an unknown pilot
that is about 60 miles from
Nis
in a region called Gralska
padina near Dragoman
Bulgaria
. Could it be that with 3
ME109's in pursuit that Carl had taken some hits and perhaps wounded knew that
he could not expect to make it over the mountains to Italy headed south to get
away from the Germans and east to find a flat place to land? It would tie in
with John's book that said he went down in
Bulgaria
. We need some verification
as to whether or not he could have made it that far. Who better to call than
the two guys whom were there? I called and spoke with Jim Graham while typing
with my other hand on IM to Bill. The info that Jim has only goes back to July
1944. But he shares our thoughts that maybe that might be him. I also called
and left a message for John Mullins who said he would send me his information
on that mission by mail. He says that if Carl was hit he probably couldn't have
kept it up there for 10 minutes. On the other hand Carl and Stub were escorting
2 cripples home. I think that this is our best lead.
The
info in Bill's report is quite extensive. It tells of the missions and the
causalities in
Bulgaria
as a result of those
missions as well as the planes shot down and the allied pilots that were killed
in action. One part that is confusing is that many were reported killed in
action on June 11th. There must be some mistake here as I doubt that
they could muster a big raid after the losses that were taken on 6-10 mission.
Bill and I decided that we would wait to get some verification as to what was
going on then. As I discussed the mission in the "Escort of P-38's "
I decided to send Bill my copy and beg John to find out where I could get another
one. He said get it from the publisher at 1-800-895-4585. I bought 2 copies and
sent one to Nena as well. I thought to myself that Liz has a lot of catching up
to do when she gets home. As I went to the post office to mail the book I
decided to drop by the bank and pick up the number that she had given to me in
the motor home. When she answered she sounded tired and beat. They were in
Missouri
and had to make it to
Washington
D.C.
in just a couple of days.
She could not believe all that had happened and said that she was sorry that
she had not set up her new portable computer to receive e-mails before she
left. One of her people however had theirs so I sent the info to him at MStarling@cell-tel.com.
Now I guess the big question is if he crashed in Bulgaria would he have been
taken to Belgrade, Yugoslavia? If not, could he still be in Dragoman? The
possibility also exists that there is a military cemetery somewhere in Bulgaria
perhaps even in Sofia. That would be too lucky. As the years go by the chances
of finding anyone out there that could be an eyewitness grows smaller and
smaller.
For
the time being it is a waiting game with information coming from CILHI, John
Mullins and Nena. I had no luck finding anyone on the net in Dragoman or
Gralska padina. Maybe Bill could find out how big that city is and if they have
a cemetery and a newspaper.
Daily
updates come in from Nena. She is everywhere has seen everyone and has followed
every lead to no avail. She asked about tail numbers as only tail numbers on
the plane identified some of the gravesites. Liz finally made it home and is
buried in copies of e-mails. She said she would scan the records given to her
by Ted Darcy and send them to me. I also received in the mail a package of
information from John Mullins regarding the mission with some of the
information in German. Time to contact my old friend Mark Wilton at Marwil2@aol.com to enlist his language skills.
I
contacted Jim Graham regarding crew chiefs and the tail number who in turn
contacted the OPS Officer Jim Advey. Jim could not recall the tail number or
the crew chief but said that we might contact Steve Duncan 11712 San Victorio
Ave. NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87111, phone 505-292-2899. I called Steve who
said that he had read the Jesse story and while he was there at that time he
did not remember Jesse. He did remember the mission however. As to Carl he said
Carl played 2nd base on the baseball team but did not fly out of his
section. He could not remember Carl's tail number and said that Jim Advey would
be my best source. He said that his pilot Rudy Janci was also shot down on the
6-10-44 mission however he survived and went home. He is to provide me with an
e-mail address. He is under the weather as he just had an operation. He is
planning on going to Dayton this year and I told him that I would put his
address in the "Carl Squadron" e-mail list to keep him up to date.
Jim also said that in an old issue of the 1st Fighter news that a
report indicated that Carl went down about 35-40 miles south west of Vidin,
Bulgaria. That would put him about 20 miles (32km) of Mikhaylovgrad, Bulgaria
or about 35 miles north of Dragoman, Dragoman may just be our place. There is a
little village at that location called Chuprene, Bulgaria located at the end of
a 1-lane road. It appears very small on the map but it is the closest to that
location. They probably don't even have phone lines there let alone someone on
AOL. They must have a mayor or a policeman there however. I must ask Bill how
to contact someone there. Even if there were a postmaster that would help.
The
time is now April 29th and Bill has gone to Dragoman to see what he
could find. He located a man who
witnessed the dogfight and saw the plane crash and burn. The plane missed his
home by 10 meters and the pilot did not survive. All that was left was the
torso of the body. There were some inconsistencies in his story claiming that
it was a black pilot from Canada and although the plane burned the tires
didn't. However he did say there were 6 ME109's in the chase. The remains of
the pilot were buried by Russian solder in a grave near a creek.
May
2nd. E-mail from Bill Jordan the former head of CILHI Wjordan480@aol.com arrives with suggestions and addresses. It will be nice to have some direction
from a pro. He is definitely a welcome addition to our "Carl
Squadron".
May
4th in response to Bill's witness we get a response from Steve Blake blake@home.com the author of a book about the 82nd Fighter Squadron. He says he
doubts the story of the witness, as there were no black Canadian pilots in the
air that day. He further states that 22 aircraft were lost that day and no
F-5's (a P-38 recon aircraft). He goes on to say that he will check out where
each plane crashed and identify by pilot each crash site so that we can
concentrate on the unknowns. We also heard from Steve Duncan today who was a
crew chief on Janci's plane. He too was shot down on that day. Steve sent me a
list of the aircraft serial numbers and tail numbers but only at the end of
July 1944. This of course was after the loss of Carl.
While
looking on the Web I found a web site called WWII aces and found a full account
of the mission. It was written by Jon Crump jcrump@best.com I e-mailed him the story on
Jesse and Carl and asked for his help. He mentioned that he had a friend Jim Morehead who knew Carl who said he
was the Operations Officer on the 10th of June 44. The only information that he had was that
Carl was down. He too had written a book called "In My Sights-the Memoir
of a P-40 Ace". Jim does not have an e-mail address.
May
5th and we received a long e-mail from Nena. She went to Nis to see
the cemetery there. She walked in the rain to take the names off of the
gravestones. It appeared that most of the guys there are English. I told her
that while may be interesting to know and have these names that our goal at
this time is strictly Carl and any unknowns without a date or a date that was
close to 6-10.
Nena
went to the Canadian Embassy to check out the black pilot story however the
woman was very "unfriendly" and offered no help.
Bill
was once again in contact with the landowner and his son from Dragoman. They
have agreed to dig up the floor of their barn for $200.00 to recover the
machine gun that was buried there. Bill agrees and the "weapon" is
dug up. Sprits are high, now all we need is the serial number from Liz to
verify the aircraft. Bill drove up there to pick it up and found that the part
was in fact the hydraulic tube for the front wheel-landing strut. There was a
serial number on it but it may have in fact been a part number. The number was 36-6C486
M38363DWG610684 the wheel size was 39x13.60 Goodyear USA. How disappointed Bill
must be. As we were unaware of the location of the serial numbers a help
message was sent to all of the Carl Squadron to help. John Mullins said that
Bob Cardin whom is restoring "Glacier Girl", the P-38 pulled out of
the Greenland icecap would have that info. I found his mailing address and
phone number but no e-mail. He is at 503 Wildwood Rd. in Middlesboro, KY, phone
606-248-1942. As we have a strut not a machine gun the urgency to know where
the numbers are no longer exists.
It
is May 12th and to celebrate my birthday a letter was received from
Steve Blake who wrote a book on the 82nd Fighter Squadron. Steve is
now in the process of doing his elimination of crash sites and Dragoman looks
like the only unidentified pilot site. If we could just find something with a
serial number to tie it up with a ribbon.
Received
a copy of a letter today that Steve Duncan, Janci's crew chief, sent to all 71st line personnel. His letter requested any information anyone had on Carl as well
as Jesse's plane. What model G, H or J model? What tail number and color. It is
truly nice to see that these guys are still interested after all these years.
May
18th Steve Blake finished his process of elimination and is pretty
certain that if a P-38 went down in Dragoman it was probably Carl's. With all
of the witnesses saying it was a P-38 with the split tail all we have to do now
is verify a part number.
May
19th 7AM Bill Mays and I are having our morning /evening chat when
Bill Jordan signed on. New experience, a private chat room. We decide that Bill
Mays will continue to look for numbers on the cylinder while I try to locate
the guys working on Glacier Girl, as they could verify numbers, and Bill Jordan
is talking excavation at the area of the gravesite. A call is scheduled in the
afternoon Bill's number is 703-351-9840. Bill Mays and I are wondering what we
are going to do for a hobby if our search is truly over.
I
called for Bob Cardin however but he was out. The owner of the plane is a
banker by the name of Roy Shoffner (they must pay bankers more in Kentucky) at
606-248-4584. I called and although he was out I did get a web site address.
TheLostSquadron.com. I pulled it up and found the history of the planes that
got lost and landed in an ice field off Greenland. Talk about a find, a brand
new P-38 with all matching numbers. Best of all I am sure they have all the
manuals and all the part numbers and they have an e-mail address too. MRP38@eastKY.net
Bill
Mays called from Bulgaria. There goes the phone bill. He found a serial number
on the unit 6?1011G SSY then under is
ER365? The first ? looks like it may be a small o the second? is unknown. The e-mail goes out
to all members of the squadron and it is now waiting time. I don't wait well!
After an hour and a half I go to the web page to get a phone number. I called
606-248-1149 and got a guy in the office who said that Bob Cardin was out until
tomorrow and he had the computer turned off. He said that he did not have the
time to check for the number as he was doing paper work and to call back after
3PM their time tomorrow. Patience is not one of my virtues!
Bob
Cardin called me at the bank on May 21st to say that he had been out
of town and that he would scan and send pictures and part numbers to Bill. When
I got home I quickly went through the story to find the numbers. It's a match!
With Blake doing his elimination to show that all of the 22 P-38's were accounted
for but one, the Missing Air Crew Report saying that he went down near the
border and now the verification that the part is in fact the nose wheel of a
P-38 our search is over. The Dragoman crash site is Carl's. As luck had it Bill
Jordan was on line and as my mind was going faster than I could type so I
called him. He prepared a letter to go to CILHI to do a search for Carl's
remains. I thought to myself that this is just under the wire as it is Memorial
Day weekend. This is what it is all about. Not the Bar-B-Q's but the
remembrance of those that fought and died in battle. All that remains is for
CILHI now to do their job. I only wish I could be there during the time they
were there.
The
time has also come to send a copy of the story with a word of thanks to all of
the people who made this day possible.
June,
a new month and a time for new directions. Liz is so excited about our good
fortune she is going to Bulgaria with members of her family to see what they
can find. They will be equipped with the latest in metal detector equipment. It
is there hope to find additional parts of the aircraft in the farmer's field.
Bill has had no luck in getting onto the local military base near Dragoman. He
is still trying on a local level but it doesn't look promising.
It
has been said that happiness in life is seeing happiness in others. Such is the
case of the Hoenshell family. None of us ever in our wildest dreams thought
that we would find the crash site and have a chance at bringing him home. Our
goal now is to get CILHI interested enough to make a run over there. I think
that if we can get them there it is time for us to pack our bags as well. If
not, then definitely where ever and when ever they bring him home.
We
are now in late June and no help seems to exist in getting onto the base. Bill
and I discussed it and decided that it can't hurt to try the Presidents right
hand again. An email is sent to priemna@mail.president.bg and this time
they say they might be able to help. They advise that we contact them when Liz
gets there and they will get them onto the base. I guess over there if an
aircraft crashes they haul it away but leave it in a dump pile. It just seems
too much to expect that after all of these years that old broken bird would be
laying around on the edge of the field. As I think of it however I have seen
old aircraft on the edge of airports over here so maybe we will get lucky. Liz
called and set up a time to meet with Bogdan Evtimov from the Presidents
office.
An
email came on 7-1 from Steve Blake saying that he located the name of the pilot
who shot Carl Down. His name was Lt. Hans Taubenberger S2 GA of the 6th Staffel II JG 51 flying out of Radomir Bulgaria. This is about 25 miles south
of Dragoman.
July
20th and Liz said that she sent the story to all of the local TV
channels and ABC and NBC put on 2 minute segments regarding the solving of a 54
year old mystery. She also said that CBS sent a copy of the story to date to 60
minutes. If we could get that kind of publicity we surely could get CILHI to
look into it.
The
excitement level is high, Liz is on her way to the airport and calls from the
car like a giddy schoolgirl going on a date. With their video camera equipment
and many, many VCR tape cartridges they could probably shoot all of Bulgaria.
But like Liz says it is better to take too many then not enough. There is
nothing to do now but to wait until Bill Emails me now as to their findings. It
is waiting time again and I am not a good waiter.
Sad
and bad news time. Our Nena is out of work. It seems that her job at the
newspaper has been unable to pay her for the past 3 months so she must find
some other employment. She has such a great work ethic that I only wish she
were here but I know that wouldn't work. Perhaps tomorrow Bill may have some
ideas.
Bill
May reports that Liz, Colin and Ron arrived but their luggage didn't. He said
that Liz's real problem is that she doesn’t have her curling iron. Being bald
myself I can't relate to worrying about not having a curling iron. Dani, Bill's
friend, was kind enough to loan clothes so that she would have something to
wear. The Dept of Defense would not let Liz and her group on the local airfield
however they did go to Demitrias, the farmer who was kind enough to give Liz
the front wheel strut and wheel. With the metal detection equipment they were
also able to find many little pieces and parts. They then visited the gravesite
and found bone fragments. It is DNA time. Bill went to some other people in the
area and was presented with of all things the oil pan. It was aluminum and had
been used to feed the pigs for about 30 years. Is nothing sacred? All in all it
was a very successful trip and the real excitement was just to begin.
At
the airport Colin had forgotten to check out of the hotel so a call was made to
Bill to resolve the problem. The next problem was the Balkan Airline, which had
an equipment failure, which resulted in a rapid change of airlines and
directions. Oh well why not go to Frankfurt? Or Washington D.C.? Liz and the
gang were tired by the time they got home and then had to face the business
problems that stacked up in their absence. Liz said that upon her return 2 TV
channels were waiting impatiently for film and info. The long days got longer
but then on Friday July the 31st she received information that David
Roth from CILHI would be visiting Dragoman in October. That afternoon she was
contacted by Tom Holland from CILHI in Hawaii, hollandt@hickem-cilhi.army.mil.
It appears that CILHI may go earlier to Europe and they may get to BG before
October. A new member of the squadron and we welcome him.
It
is now September 1998 and I accepted the 71st Fighter Squadron’s
invitation to be a speaker at their annual reunion. At last a chance to put a
face with many of the people that I have met over the internet. As I went into
the hospitality room I was greeted as if I had been a pilot during that period
and had flown with them. I met Jim Graham first and he called John Mullins who
was there in a heartbeat. I had taken all of the mission reports that I had
copied and gave them to Jim who is the president of the group. With about 15
guys in the room they were all reading the reports and remembering events of
each mission. I was so happy that I had taken the time to duplicate 6 months
worth of mission reports and take them with us. The group warmly received me as
I went through the steps I took on both Carl and Jesse. Liz was there with
Colin and they brought all of the pieces of the plane that they had dug up from
the crash site including the landing gear. They had also taken a video of the
crash site as well as the pieces as they found them with the metal detector. We
spent 2 days with the old warriors and enjoyed every minute of it.
In
October CILHI did in fact visit the location and talk with the property owner.
Unfortunately each part of CILHI does certain parts of the project. They did
decide that there was enough proof to go to the next step and schedule a visit
and excavation in the spring. In talking with Bill Mays it appears to be a May
1999 event. It is great to know that after all of these years Carl will be
going home.
It
is now April of 1999 and we have just been advised that CILHI will not be going
in to Dragoman because of the problems in Yugoslavia. How sadly ironic that a
new war gets in the way of bringing home our dead from a war that took place 55
years ago.
The
summer was spent on a "they may come this year or they may not". Then
one day Bill emailed me to say that CILHI would in fact be there in late
September. The Carl Squadron was reactivated for duty. Bill said that upon
arrival to Bulgaria all of the supplies and equipment were for all purposes
quarantined.
Liz and her family went back to Bulgaria to be there during the CILHI investigation.
This story continues with a happy ending. Unfortunately the text from the rest of the story is missing. If you have the remainder of the text, please contact the webmasters.
Hoenschell Funeral article |
"The Carl Hoenshell Squadron"