Flight of the Forgotten. Mark A. Vance
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I was born. Each grid on my map was twelve square miles across and had to be worked as carefully as if I’d lost a contact lens. Several square miles of the search area were underwater and had to be disregarded. One loch in particular, several miles in diameter and hundreds of feet deep, was no doubt the final resting place for many pieces of “Army 5095” as it blew-up in the air above it. Those items, however, are lost forever without advanced submersible equipment and I was forced to concentrate the search on solid terrain.
It was truly like hunting for a needle in a haystack. Even my metal detectors were of limited use in the marshy terrain. Many clues were probably right there under my nose, but it didn’t take long to realize that it might take years to find them. I needed help with the search beyond what this world could offer. I needed the other side. There was just too much ground to cover and too little time.
Not long after that thought occurred to me, I saw a figure in the distance motioning to me very dramatically, calling my name and trying to get my attention. I didn’t recognize him at first, but he seemed to know exactly who I was and appeared intent on directing me toward something. Approaching him slowly, I noticed he was dressed in an American military uniform and leather flying jacket.
“What is it?” I asked as I walked toward him cautiously.
“Over here!” he shouted.
“What do you want?”
“Right here!” he repeated, pointing down at the ground.
“Right here, what?”
“Look!” he encouraged.
“Yeah, yeah, okay …” I grunted, kneeling down to examine the item. “It looks like some kind of Plexiglas.”
“Uh-huh.”
“It must have fallen as one piece and then split apart.” I said.
“That’s exactly right.”
“Wait a second …” I said, turning the item over and examining its other side. “It’s been heat seared.”
“Yes. There was an explosion.” he insisted.
“An explosion?” I echoed.
“An airborne explosion!” he repeated.
“What kind of airplane?” I asked, concerned there might be more than one airplane and how that would complicate the investigation.
“A B-24.” he replied.
“A B-24? How do you know that?”
“Because I was there.”
“You were …?” I stammered, eyeing him again carefully. “Who are you? What are you doing here and where did you get that pilot’s uniform?” I demanded. “Is this some kind of a joke?”
“My name is Jack Ketchum. I got the uniform when I joined the Army Air Corps. and it’s no joke.” he replied, smiling solemnly.
“Jack Ketch …?” I gasped, stunned.
“I was an aircraft commander, just like you.” he said softly. “I’m going to help you find what you need.” he announced, still smiling.
“What … what about my uncle? Where’s Buster?” I asked awkwardly.
“He sent me. He thought it was important for us to talk, aircraft commander to aircraft commander. Come on. I’ve got a lot to show you.” he urged, turning and heading across the open field as I stood motionless, reeling from the encounter.
“You coming, Captain?” he asked as I recovered from the shock enough to grasp the Plexiglas and follow a few steps behind him.
“How do I know it’s …?” I tried to ask.
“How do you know it’s me, you mean? Well, don’t you remember? I saw you at Bradley Field that night in the rain.” he replied, walking briskly toward the distant forest.
September 22, 1989, Gairloch, Scotland
In the days that followed, Lieutenant Ketchum eventually led me to all sorts of wreckage from his ill-fated flight. I would find him waiting for me each morning under a set of tall trees at the edge of a large clearing, staring longingly at a photo of Bobbe. He was jovial and personable, and it was almost impossible to think of him as dead. Under his direction, I eventually located the top halves of both vertical stabilizers six miles from the main impact point. The stabilizers were separated from each other by over a mile. The fracture line on each was identical though, as if a tremendous force had caused both to separate at the same time. To my amazement, the right vertical stabilizer carried a different aircraft registration number than the left one, because of what Lieutenant Ketchum called “hurried maintenance.” A later check of the actual maintenance records from the base at Warton, England, where the aircraft was dispatched, would confirm that that was true. The aircraft’s right vertical stabilizer had been replaced only days before the bomber was assigned to Lieutenant Ketchum. Neither stabilizer had likely been viewed by another living soul since Buster watched them separate from his aircraft almost fifty years before, telegraphing the fact that he was going to die. I was probably the next person to see them.
With Lieutenant Ketchum’s help, I also discovered the rudders and bomb-bay doors several miles further into the woods. From the evidence, it was apparent the aircraft had experienced a violent lateral force and a giant twisting motion along its entire fuselage. The debris indicated there had been one or more massive in-flight explosions at an extreme angle to the aircraft’s direction of flight, causing several large portions of the aircraft to separate. There was also evidence of an engine fire in at least one engine at the main impact point, adding to the incredible amount of destruction the bomber experienced before finally hitting the ground. Each time Lieutenant Ketchum led me to a discovery, I would examine it carefully, taking only photographic evidence and leaving the item undisturbed exactly where it had been found. To this day, each discovery remains in precisely the same place where it hit the ground almost five decades ago, deep in the wilderness of Northwestern Scotland.
The Plexiglas material Lieutenant Ketchum had shown me at the very beginning of our search coincided with local eyewitness accounts of an explosion overhead that fateful day. Several people heard an aircraft orbiting high overhead in the clouds for some time before the sound of an explosion rocked the countryside. They naturally assumed the aircraft had crashed into Mt. Slioch, the highest terrain in the immediate area. A few miles inland and 1,200 feet above sea level, Mr. Slioch was hidden that day inside thick clouds.
“You know, the natives think the airplane hit that mountain.” I said cautiously, gesturing toward Mt. Slioch in the distance.
Smiling knowingly, Lieutenant Ketchum turned toward me and paused momentarily before answering. “They heard the explosion. They just assumed.”
“Did you hit the mountain?” I asked pilot to pilot.
“No, it was the second bomb.” he replied. “The heat from the blast was tremendous. Many in my crew were killed right away.”
“They were …? Second bomb?” I echoed.
“There were two bombs.” he stated matter-of-factly. “One was hidden in the right wheel well and another in the bomb-bay. The first one started an uncontrollable fire in engine number three and caused massive structural damage. All these pieces!” he declared, gesturing at the evidence in front of us. “The second one in the bomb-bay killed a lot of us before we finally crashed. You have to believe me! There was nothing I could do!” he insisted, pleading for my understanding.
“I believe you, Jack. I just had to ask.” I replied, as he smiled weakly in return. “Why put them there though? Why put the bombs there?” I asked.
“Because those were the easiest access points for the ground crew.” he answered cryptically.
“But, who would do such a thing?” I implored.