Project Recover’s work with Stockbridge High School Underwater Robotics Team is a cornerstone educational initiative and the brainchild of Flip Colmer.
Search for Missing WWII UDT Members in Palau
Project Recover went on a mission to Palau to search for missing WWII UDT members and other WWII POW/MIAs in November 2019. They had three goals.
Adam Gray, New Project Recover Team Member
Project Recover welcomes Adam Gray, our newest Project Recover team member. Adam was invited to become a team member on our most recent mission to Palau.
![Project Recover Mission, Palau.]Photo by Harry Parker Photography](https://www.projectrecover.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/mission-palau-reunited-3-1200x631.jpg)
MIA Family Travels To Palau with Project Recover to Uncle’s Crash Site
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 …
Project Recover Attends Ceremony For Battle of Peleliu 75th Anniversary
Project Recover participated in a ceremony for the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Peleliu. Cleared Ground Demining hosted the ceremony.
The Search For MIAs: Execution of WWII POWs and Innocents in Palau
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, …
Otis E. Ingram, WWII Gunner, Accounted For By DPAA
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 …
Lt. William Punnell, WWII Pilot, Buried At Arlington Cemetery
The importance of family was evident at the funeral of Lt. William Q. Punnell, MIA WWII pilot. Punnell’s surviving nephew and grand-nephew attended.
WWII Ordnanceman Sharninghouse Laid To Rest In Hometown
AOM2c Sharninghouse, WWII ordnanceman, was buried 73 years later. His surviving sister and family, including 15 nieces and nephews, attended the funeral.
MIA Lt. William Q. Punnell located by Project Recover to be buried May 2
April 27, 2018 – MIA Lt. William Q. Punnell located by Project Recover will be buried May 2nd On May 2, 2018 Navy Reserve Lt. William Q. Punnell, 27, of Flandreau, South Dakota will be buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. On July 25, 1944 four divisions (16 aircraft) of F6F-3 Hellcat fighters led by Lt. Punnell, took off from the USS Wasp aircraft carrier on a fighter sweep against targets throughout the islands of the Republic of Palau. According to eyewitnesses, the tail of Lt. Punnell’s aircraft was shot off during a strafing run against the north Japanese seaplane base on Arakabesan Island. His plane, continuing to dive, crashed into the waters offshore and sunk without …
