Current BentProp Projects

P-MAN VII (15 Feb - 15 Mar 2005)

The 2005 expedition is complete.

Here is where you can read daily progress reports that were filed while P-MAN VII was under way.

The expedition was conducted 15 February - 15 March 2005. As usual, the list of targets was bigger than it was going into P-MAN VI in January/February 2004 - despite some dramatic successes during P-MAN VI. Prior to the 2005 expedition, the team made an 8-man-day trip to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) research facility in College Park, Maryland in early August. While there, we examined hundreds of pages of War Diaries, among other things, for ships and aviation units that participated in the various operations against Palau from the spring of 1944 through the summer of 1945. We also made a 5-man-day trip to NARA in mid-January. Among other things, in January we spent many hours looking through boxes of transcripts of decrypted Japanese radio message traffic in and around Palau during the war.

We believe that we've confirmed the identity of the pilot of the FM-2 that the P-MAN VI team located on Babelthuap - and confirmed that he is KIA-BNR. We showed the site to JPAC's archaeologist and EOD specialist during our overlapping time in P-MAN VI. Now that we are convinced that the pilot is unaccounted-for, and given the site's appearance of a non-survivable crash, there's a chance that this site will move up on JPAC's priority list for a future mission.

Here were the formal objectives going into P-MAN VII:

• Investigation of several crash sites found during P-MAN VI
• Investigation of new American crash sites based on new archival and other research and new leads in Palau during 2004
• Ongoing investigation of fates of American POWs in Palau

These were possible search areas:

And here were the main points from our working plan:

• Initiate contact with local authorities upon arrival
• Initiate ongoing site investigations
• Initiate local interviews and plan new searches based on outcomes
• Update www.bentprop.org website daily while in Palau

We're working on the final report for the 2005 expedition. This typically takes a few months. When it's complete, you'll be able to read it here.

P-MAN VI (14 Jan - 23 Feb 2004)

P-MAN VI is complete. It was conducted during the period 14 January - 23 February 2004.

Progress reports were sent back while the expedition was under way. You can read the reports here.

The P-MAN VI Final Report is also complete. You can read it here.
  

Page last modified 12 April 2005