Project Recover Mission, Palau.]Photo by Harry Parker Photography

MIA Family Travels To Palau with Project Recover to Uncle’s Crash Site

Lauren Trecosta Families, MIAs 1 Comment

The MIA family of ARM2c Albert “Bud” Rybarczyk, USNR, traveled to Palau to join Project Recover on their most recent mission. Cindy Gray, Bud’s niece, and her son, Adam, flew to Palau in April 2019. They wanted to get as close as possible to where their Uncle Bud flew his final mission. For the family of Bud Rybarczyk, this was another extraordinary event in a series of miraculous unfoldings over the last couple of years. In 2014, Project Recover located his downed TBM Avenger WWII aircraft in the waters off Palau. Rybarczyk crashed after completing a bombing mission on September 8, 1944. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified Rybarczyk’s remains and accounted for him on August 16, 2017. Four …

This WWII photo shows B-24 Liberators flying over Porto Santo Stefano, Italy - Project Recover Mission, Italy. Looking for WWII Bombers on the Western Coast of Italy - Project Recover is committed to bringing MIAs home.

Project Recover Searches For WWII Aircraft, MIAs in Italy

Lauren Trecosta MIA Searches, Mission - Europe 11 Comments

Porto Santo Stefano, Italy16 September – 5 October 2018 Under contract with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), Project Recover headed to Porto Santo Stefano in the Grosseto province of Italy to search for World War II aircraft and MIAs in September 2018. Our primary goal was to locate and positively identify an A-20, a B-24, B-25, and B-26, all associated with MIAs. The WWII aircraft were lost along the coastlines of Marina di Grosseto, Porto Ercole, and Porto Santo Stefano.   Project Recover conducts all its missions in cooperation with local governments. We received approval from the Italian federal, provincial, and local governments in Grosseto region of Italy. We also held an information session for the local public. Italian colleagues, …

Project Recover and Cleared Ground Demining at wreath-laying ceremony recognizing 75th Anniversary of Battle of Peleliu.

Project Recover Attends Ceremony For Battle of Peleliu 75th Anniversary

Lauren Trecosta MIA Searches, Mission - Pacific 4 Comments

12 April 2019 Project Recover honored the fallen at a wreath-laying ceremony for the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Peleliu. Cleared Ground Demining hosted the ceremony. The ceremony was held at the US Army 323d Infantry Monument and Lookout on Peleliu. The Battle of Peleliu was a fierce battle between US forces covering for General MacArthur’s return to the Philippines and occupying Japanese forces defending their regional headquarters and homeland. US Army 323d Infantry Monument and Lookout, Peleliu We left Koror at 9 am and headed by boat for Peleliu. It was another beautiful day with clear skies and sunshine. April in Palau is generally thick with humidity. The breezy boat ride took us through the picturesque Rock Islands, …

Pat Scannon Nominated for HillVets Hagel Award - Project Recover is a non profit organizaiton committed to bringing home American MIA’s. PROJECT RECOVER IS A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT TO ENLIST 21ST CENTURY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN A QUEST TO FIND AND REPATRIATE AMERICANS MISSING IN ACTION SINCE WORLD WAR II, IN ORDER TO PROVIDE RECOGNITION AND CLOSURE FOR FAMILIES AND THE NATION.

Pat Scannon Nominated for HillVets Hagel Award

Lauren Trecosta Press Release 1 Comment

Pat Scannon, M.D., Ph.D., President and Co-Founder of Project Recover, has been nominated for the HillVets Hagel Award of 2018. The HillVets Hagel Award is an annual award given to the veteran, service member, or veteran who has given the most in support of veterans in the previous year. HillVets is a D.C.-based non-profit dedicated to helping veterans begin and advance in their second careers and increasing their presence in government, policy, and politics. Each year, HillVets accepts nominations for the HillVets 100; veterans, service members, and their supporters who have contributed the most to our veterans. From those HillVets 100, three are nominated for the HillVets Hagel Award. The winner of the HillVets Hagel Award will be voted on …

Project Recover’s 2018 Annual Report - Project Recover is a non profit organizaiton committed to bringing home American MIA’s. PROJECT RECOVER IS A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT TO ENLIST 21ST CENTURY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN A QUEST TO FIND AND REPATRIATE AMERICANS MISSING IN ACTION SINCE WORLD WAR II, IN ORDER TO PROVIDE RECOGNITION AND CLOSURE FOR FAMILIES AND THE NATION.

2018 Annual Report

Harry Press Release 6 Comments

Project Recover’s 2018 Annual Report summarizes our global efforts to bring Missing In Action (MIA) American service members home. We are honored to have worked on 26 cases associated with 104 MIAs and 22 POWs. Our work spanned eight countries in the Pacific and European theaters and in the Persian Gulf. We assisted in accounting for four World War II MIAs in 2018 and were honored to attend the funeral of three of them, at the invitation of the families. Project Recover located the stern of the USS Abner Read associated with 70 MIAs in July 2018. We also announced the discovery of the B-24 Heaven Can Wait in Hansa Bay near Papua, New Guinea, in May 2018 and attended …

Heaven Can Wait Family Reunion - Project Recover is committed to bringing the MIA home. Photos by Harry Parker Photography.com

Relatives of WWII B-24 Crew Gather For Heaven Can Wait ‘Family Reunion’

Lauren Trecosta Families, MIAs 10 Comments

Heaven Can Wait Family Reunion On March 11, 1944, a World War II B-24 bomber called Heaven Can Wait came under anti-aircraft fire and crashed in the waters off Papua, New Guinea, killing all 11 crew members onboard. Seventy-four years later, on October 13th, 2018, relatives of the crew members gathered for a “family reunion” in Victoria, Minnesota. Using side-scanning sonars, high definition images, and underwater robotic technologies, Project Recover located the B-24 in 2017 under 213 feet of water. The family of  Bombardier 2nd Lt. Thomas V. Kelly, Jr, provided extensive research helping Project Recover to locate the aircraft within two weeks on the water. Scott Althaus, lead Kelly family researcher and first cousin once removed to the Bombardier, …

Execution of WWII POWs and Innocents in Palau - Project Recover is committed to bringing the MIA home. Photos by Harry Parker Photography.com

The Search For Remains: Execution of WWII POWs and Innocents in Palau

Lauren Trecosta MIA Searches, Mission - Pacific 19 Comments

July 2018 Project Recover spent three weeks searching for the remains from the execution of WWII POWs and innocents in Palau in July 2018. It was a land-based mission with two points of focus: Police Hill and Aimeliik. Pat Scannon, M.D., Ph.D., and founder of The BentProp Project, led the mission. Dan O’Brien, a 20 year veteran of BentProp, co-led the mission. The rest of the volunteer team was Jolie Liston, Ph.D. (archaeologist), Dave Bavencoff (police officer), Sarah Johnson (college sophomore), Glenn Frano (geospatial technician), and Joe Maldangesang, a State Conservation Officer and 20+ year veteran of BentProp, who served the mission as jungle guide and skipper We had key support from within Palau: Richard Madrekevet, an unexploded ordnance specialist, …

TBM Avenger

Otis E. Ingram, WWII Gunner, Accounted For By DPAA

Lauren Trecosta MIAs Accounted For, News 7 Comments

Navy Aviation Chief Ordnanceman Otis E. Ingram, a WWII gunner, killed in 1944, has been accounted for by the DPAA.  ACOM Ingram was a turret gunner aboard a TBM-1c Avenger and a member of the U.S. Navy Torpedo Squadron Fifty One (VT-51). Project Recover located that Avenger in 2016 and turned its findings over to the DPAA. Ingram and his crewmates were on a mission to bomb a Japanese base in Malakal Harbor, Palau.  His aircraft took off from the USS San Jacinto on July 27th, 1944, and was in the lead position of four Avengers. According to reports, the aircraft was last seen three to five miles ahead. It was believed to have been spotted on fire in Malakal …