The Science Behind the Search Article

The Science Behind the Search for MIAs

Lauren Trecosta About 1 Comment

An Interview with Mark Moline, Ph.D. Innovative science revolutionized Project Recover’s ability to find American MIAs and help bring them home. Project Recover partners and co-founders Mark Moline, Ph.D., Director of University of Delaware’s School of Marine Science and Policy, and Eric Terrill, Ph.D., Director of Coastal Observing Research and Development Center at Scripps Institution of Oceanography spearhead the science behind the search for MIAs.  For Mark Moline, the search for MIAs adds a human connection to his work as an oceanographer that makes it even more enticing than making a scientific discovery alone.  “Meeting the families, watching whole towns show up in the bitter cold to celebrate the young life of someone they didn’t know personally but know they …

The pilot seat after 75 years in the ocean off the coast of Palau of a WWII MIA Avenger & Hellcat crewed by Walter E. “Bert” Mintus and Lt. Roland Richard Houle - found byProject RecoverCrew

Project Recover Locates Downed WWII Avenger in Pacific Islands

Harry News, WWII Finds 1 Comment

May 25, 2016–An American aircraft, a TBM-1C Avenger,missing since July 1944 was recently located in the waters surrounding the Pacific Island nation of Palau by Project RECOVER — a collaborative effort to combine the most advanced oceanographic technology with advanced archival research methods to locate aircraft and associated Americans missing in action (MIA) since World War II. Scattered among the lagoon waters and coral reefs surrounding Palau’s island chain, and concealed within its dense mangrove forests, are several dozen U.S. aircraft and the remains of as many as 80 U.S. airmen. This U.S. Navy TBM-1C adds to the growing list of wrecks discovered by Project RECOVER. “The importance of our mission is reinforced with each new discovery of a missing …

Bentprop Palau Mission 18

PMAN XVIII – Project Recover Locates WWII TBM Avenger Aircraft

Harry News, WWII Finds 1 Comment

PMAN XVIII – Project Recover Locates WWII TBM Avenger Team enjoys unseasonably cool winter. Mission starts with training on D.A.N. Emergency Oxygen Case and OTS Full Face Mask in the pool. Members cover more ground and target verification due to the Navigator Sonar from Scripps and UDEL drastically changing the efficiency of the team’s efforts. Nothing of interest found on land or in sea and obvious land targets are running dry. Old sites revisited for new members, corsair and B24. Sunken landing craft and land LTV’s visited. New records set for the team. 100 targets dived. 70 man hours underwater. 79 Feet Below Sea Water (FSW) average for all targets. BentProp team members: Pat Scannon, Dan O’Brien, Val Thal-Slocum, Derek Abbey, …

Bentprop Mission 17 Palau

PMAN XVII – Project Recover Locates Avenger In Palau

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Project Recover Locates Avenger Found In Palau.   Plane wreckage thought to be HellDiver aircraft reveals itself to be an Avenger while local Palau students build their own ROV’s. A joint mission between BentProp.org, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), University of Delaware (UDEL), San Diego State University, Stockbridge High School and Pursuit Productions. Team members: Pat Scannon, Dan O’Brien, Jennifer Powers, Val Slocum, Derek Abbey, Mickaila Johnston, Blake Bottler, Flip Colmer P-MAN stands for Palau – Marine, Army Air Force, Navy. XVII means this is the seventeenth expedition since we started numbering them (in 1999) To keep up with the BentProp Project and Team Project Recover, please sign up for our newsletter below. Make sure to Check out Project Recover’s …

Project Recover Locates WWII Aircraft in Partnership with SCRIPPS and UDel

Harry News, WWII Finds 3 Comments

Nov. 7, 2014 — Project Recover locates its first WWII Aircraft in partnership with SCRIPPS Institution of Oceanography and University of Delaware’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment and is the subject of a film by camera maker GoPro and the CBS news magazine “60 Minutes.”   Supported by a grant from the Office of Naval Research, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, oceanographer Eric Terrill and Mark Moline from the University of Delaware have teamed up with the nonprofit group BentProp Project in a public-private partnership to bring closure to families that have waited for several generations for final word on the fate of their loved ones. At the same time, the project provides a test bed for …