Video by Andy Marocco - Click to Play

DONATE any amount with PAYPAL
​to PROJECT MARINER!

This expedition has been formed to locate the PBM Mariner - Trainer 49 (PBM-5 BuNo 59225 ) sent to search for Flight 19 (one of the great aviation mysteries). This Mariner took off on December 5, 1945 at 19:27 from NAS Banana River (now Patrick Air Force Base), called in a routine radio message at 19:30, and then was never heard from again. Through several years of research, aviation archaeologist Andy Marocco has compiled extensive and compelling data about the disappearance and the possible location of the Mariner.  Be part of History!

"On December 5, 1945, five TBM Avengers, known as FLIGHT 19, took off from NAS Ft. Lauderdale on a training mission. During their flight, they became disoriented and lost. Two PBM Mariners were sent out to Flight 19’s last known location to rescue them. Unfortunately, Flight 19 and its crews were never found. On its way out, one of the PBM Mariners, with a crew of 13 also disappeared and was never heard from again. These mysterious events became the cornerstone of what we know as….. the BERMUDA TRIANGLE legend.

Hello, my name is Andrew Marocco and I’m a FLIGHT 19 researcher and historian. After 70 years, I believe that one part of the Flight 19 mystery can now be solved. Over the past 3 years, I have discovered new and exciting information, that was publicly unknown and overlooked by previous researchers. These new clues have allowed me to calculate the PROBABLE location of the missing PBM Mariner, also known by its call sign as "Trainer 49.” After presenting my findings to the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum, they felt that my research would lead to the successful discovery of Trainer 49. Therefore, I am excited to announce that the Museum has agreed to become a partner and the curator of the expedition, that we call….. PROJECT MARINER.

Recently, we were off the coast of central Florida doing some preliminary investigation and equipment testing for the upcoming PROJECT MARINER expedition. To successfully find the wreckage of the PBM Mariner, we will need to charter a Research Vessel, outfitted with the latest 3D High Definition Side Scan Sonar and Multi-Phase Echo Sounding technology. 

On behalf of the Naval Air Station Ft Lauderdale Museum we are asking for your help to solve one of the greatest mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle. By making a donation to the Museum, PROJECT MARINER, is that much closer to its expedition start date. And remember because the Museum is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, your donation is tax deductible. If you love history, become part of it, join our team and donate to PROJECT MARINER today!" --Andy Marocco, Project Manager

DONATE any amount with PAYPAL to PROJECT MARINER!

For any questions: Contact Andy Marocco, Project Manager
PROJECT MARINER is a program of the NAVAL AIR STATION FORT LAUDERDALE MUSEUM
All donations are TAX DEDUCTIBLE because we are a  nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization.

Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum
4000 West Perimeter Road,
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33315
(954) 359-4400
http://www.nasflmuseum.com

EIN: 65-0353567 
A 501(c)(3) non-profit organization 

Country music artist Marc Andrew Poveromo has always been fascinated by Flight 19. Marc contacted the Museum to let us know about his latest news: he recorded a song in Nashville accompanied by several well known musicians, including Shania Twain's drummer. The song relates the story of the ill fated Flight 19. Marc is a composer and a musician from Miami, Florida. He has recorded several music albums. Thanks for sharing your talent Marc!  Great lyrics and melodies!!   Please pass it along...

The Devil's Hand: Music & Lyrics by Marc Andrew Poveromo (Marc's YouTube Channel)

FLIGHT 19 HISTORY

This plate shows the "Surface" number of the TBM Avenger found in the Everglades in 1989 as 53118 - but that's really the plane's Navy bureau number.

BuNo: 53118
Model: TBM-3E Avenger
Pilot:  Ens. Ralph N. Wachob, USNR
Assigned Unit: NAS- Miami Florida  CNARESTA
Date of Crash: March 16, 1947
Location: Approximately 30 Miles NW Master Field (NAS Miami)
Injury to Pilot: FATAL
Specific Type Accident: Vertigo in low visibility

The mystery of Flight 19 remains unsolved. Yet, as a result of the quest to unravel that riddle, another bewildering aviation case has just been cracked. New evidence led two aviation sleuths to believe that a TBM Avenger found in the Everglades 25 years ago might have been flown by the commander of the "Lost Patrol," the five Navy torpedo bombers that vanished after takeoff from Fort Lauderdale in 1945. But a photo of the Avenger's bureau number instead proves the plane was flown by Ens. Ralph N. Wachob, 26, of Fort Lauderdale, a Naval Reserve officer who developed vertigo during a navigational exercise. He crashed in far western Broward County and was killed on March 16, 1947 – 15 months after Flight 19 disappeared and popularized the myth of the Bermuda Triangle.

"We have positively identified the unknown Everglades Avenger, thus solving a decades-old mystery," said Andy Marocco, a California businessman and a Flight 19 aficionado, who pieced together the puzzle. "It just wasn't the Avenger we were hoping for."

Aviation experts estimate that between 50 and 100 military and civilian aircraft have crashed in the Everglades over the past several decades and have yet to be found – or positively identified. An air boat group that occasionally finds wrecks says some of the planes are noted on maps as hazards to navigation. Marocco and fellow Lost Patrol enthusiast, Jon Myhre, a former Palm Beach International Airport controller, initially were convinced Wachob's plane was the TBM-3 Avenger flown by Lt. Charles Taylor, the Flight 19 leader. They based their theory on the Navy's official Flight 19 accident report that said the planes might have turned southeast after being spotted over North Florida. After the Sun Sentinel ran a story about their theory, Minerva Bloom of the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum sent Marocco several photos of the 1989 wreckage of the TBM-3 Avenger. Marocco found the bureau number of the Everglades plane, 53118, from one of the photos and ran it through Navy aircraft history and accident databases. It verified that Wachob, not Taylor, was the single occupant of the plane.

"That is amazing, that we now have a name and can put that particular wreck to rest," Bloom said.

Experts saw the same number in 1989, but it was mislabeled, Marocco said. Wachob, the pilot of the doomed plane, encountered heavy rain while on a training flight from Miami to Tampa with two other planes. He lost sight of the flight leader, got disoriented and crashed. The other two planes returned to Miami, Marocco said. Navy officials recovered Wachob's body and investigated the accident. In May, 1989 – 42 years later – the wreckage of his plane was spotted by a Broward Sheriff's helicopter pilot.

"Based upon accident records, it seems that the identity of the Avenger was known to the Navy at one time," Marocco said. "It was just forgotten about for many decades."

Hoping for clues in the Lost Patrol case, Marocco and Myhre asked the Broward Airboat, Halftrack and Conservation Club of Davie to hunt for the wreckage of the Avenger. While searching, the group last week stumbled on another vintage warplane. "We just happened to see the landing gear sticking up out of the sawgrass," said Brett Holcombe, the club's president. "We also found the tail section and two wings. But the motor, we couldn't find."

Rick "Boog" Mears, a club member, initially discovered the plane in far western Broward near the Palm Beach County line. Based on photos by the air boaters, Marocco identified the plane as a Douglas A-1 Skyraider, a single-engine attack plane. He still is trying to identify its specific mission and pilot. The air boaters didn't remove any of the wreckage because the Navy plans to look into the matter. "It's considered a sunken or terrestrial military aircraft, so we're definitely going to be interested in knowing about it," said Paul Taylor, spokesman for the Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington, D.C.

Marocco, head of Aeroquest.org, a volunteer aviation organization, said the group now plans to "investigate other historical WWII aircraft wrecks that may be in the Everglades or elsewhere in Florida." Meanwhile, he's not abandoning his theory that some of the Flight 19 planes might have crashed in the Everglades.

"There's still plenty of land in the Everglades, where a small plane like an Avenger could have crashed and still waiting for us to discover," he said.

New Artifacts expand Profile of Flight 19 and Uncover One Family's Military Legacy

Pfc. William Earl Lightfoot came from a long family line of military men and women serving during the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Three members of the Lightfoot family would disappear while in service. William Earl Lightfoot was a Flight 19 crewmember aboard one of five planes that would vanish over the Atlantic on December 5, 1945. In a separate incident in 1944, his brother Eugene-- a 2nd Lieutenant with the U.S Air Corps-- was shot down in his plane, over the British Straits. William and Eugene were never found.

William was born in 1926 in Clayton, New Mexico, to Ora Lee & John Arnold Lightfoot (a Highway Engineer serving in both WWI and WWII). Ora and John had 6 children: Wanda, Geraldine and Norma, and boys Claude, Eugene and William.

In 1943 William joined the U.S Marine Corps in Lexington, Illinois. He continued with advanced training in TBM Avenger aircraft at the Naval Air Gunners School in NAS Miami (last recorded date was November 9, 1945). He was then transferred to NAS Fort Lauderdale just before his disappearance with Flight 19.  Pfc. William E. Lightfoot, 19 years old, was the only crewman besides the Pilot-- 2nd Lt. Forrest Gerber USMCR-- aboard a TBM-1C Avenger (FT-81 from NAS Fort Lauderdale). Flight 19 remains as one of the great aviation mysteries.

From Mrs. Claudia Lightfoot-Doyle, Niece of William E. Lightfoot:

Sunday, March 16, 2014

"My name is Claudia Lightfoot-Doyle and I am 61 years old.  William Lightfoot was my uncle (My dad's brother). One sibling is still living at age 77, Norma Jean (Lightfoot) Hayes. My brother, William Eugene Lightfoot, alive and living with my husband and I, is named after my father's two brothers lost in WWII (Eugene) and post WWII (William, with Flight 19).  Eugene was a pilot shot down over the British Straits, and like his brother William was never found. My father Claude, was the only one (of the Lightfoot brothers) that came home alive from the war. Norma, my brother and myself are the only living Lightfoot's left of this family line of my grandmother Ora Lee (McMinn) and John Arnold Lightfoot.
  
Anyway, I have some documents and pictures recently located in some of my grandmother's possessions. I have the actual funeral program for the 14 men lost, and pictures of the room where the memorial was held. One with it empty, and the other filled with people during the commencement of the memorial. It shows 14 American flags on the stage. There are two pictures-- I would imagine is William's flight crew-- with their plane, and a picture of just the plane. I have the original certificate issued to my grandmother (like a death certificate) from the military, stating he was lost at sea December 5, 1945.  I have pictures of William as well.
 
My father learned of his brother's disappearance on a ship, when he was coming home from the European theater-- when they announced it. How horrible to learn that way!  My family bled red, white and blue, let me tell ya. My mother Sara, was a Rosie-the-Riveter working at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA. She is still living at age 89. She riveted the wings. Her first husband was killed in WWII. She was 18 then (they were only together for 2 weeks when he was deployed). He was lost in the USS Scorpion submarine, never found as well. It went down off the South Pacific near Japan. He is listed at the war memorial in the Manila American Cemetery, Fort Bonifacio, Manila, Philippines. His name was Jack Townsend."
 
Regards,
Claudia Lightfoot-Doyle

Artifacts donated by the Lightfoot Family
are on Exhibit now at this Museum

Lightfoot Family Military Legacy

- Click on arrows to view Slideshow -
Exhibit curated and prepared by Minerva Bloom for the NASFL Museum

Mom's WWII Story
March 19, 2014

"Sara Lou (Strader) married Jack Townsend July 31, 1943 when she was 18. They were only together for 2 weeks when he was deployed during World War II. He was lost in the USS Scorpion submarine that went down off the South Pacific, near Japan. He was never found as well. Sara later married my father, Claude Arnold Lightfoot (brother of Flight 19's William Lightfoot) on May 22, 1946. Here is the article about my mom. In the picture with all the other Rosie's, my mom is in the back row, left. She's holding  her riveter wearing white gloves and a blue sweater shirt with a white collar. She was 18 and much younger than the rest of the women. The photo may have come from files at Boeing which used to be Douglas Aircraft in CA, later renamed McDonnell Douglas (then Boeing took over). After the war, my father Claude worked at the same factory for 30 years."

Regards,
Claudia Lightfoot-Doyle

Bermuda Triangle just a myth, U.S. says
 
February 8, 2014
By Ken Kaye, Sun Sentinel

Now it's official: The Bermuda Triangle is a bunch of bunk.

For decades, rumors persisted that hundreds of ships and planes mysteriously vanished in the area between Miami, Puerto Rico and Bermuda because it was cursed or patrolled by extraterrestrials. Most of us already suspected that was a myth. Yet, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just posted a story declaring the Devil's Triangle, as it's also known, is no different than any other open ocean region — and that foul weather and poor navigation are likely to blame for any mishaps.

"There is no evidence that mysterious disappearances occur with any greater frequency in the Bermuda Triangle than in any other large, well-traveled area of the ocean," the agency stated this month on noaa.gov. Ben Sherman, spokesman for NOAA's National Ocean Service, said the agency wrote the story as part of an educational program where it responds to readers' questions. The story was based on information from the U.S. Navy and U.S. Guard, which make no bones about saying the mythological area is so much balderdash.

"The Coast Guard does not recognize the existence of the so-called Bermuda Triangle as a geographic area of specific hazard to ships or planes," the military branch said. "In a review of many aircraft and vessel losses in the area over the years, there has been nothing discovered that would indicate that casualties were the result of anything other than physical causes."

Not everyone is in full agreement, including Minerva Bloom. She's a volunteer docent at the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum, which pays homage to Flight 19, perhaps the highest-profile incident involving the Bermuda Triangle. The five U.S. Navy torpedo bombers took off from Fort Lauderdale on a routine training exercise in December 1945, never to return.

"I don't think there are aliens or anything like that, but I do think there's something going on there," Bloom said. One reason for that: In the early 1990s, she and her family flew in a seaplane operated by the now defunct Chalk's International Airlines from the Bahamas to Fort Lauderdale.

"The pilot said, 'We're going over the Bermuda Triangle,' and all of the sudden, a screw fell from his panel," she recalled. "He said, 'that's happened before, don't worry about it.' But it was just spooky."

Otherwise, more scientific study should be done to determine if the Bermuda Triangle is inhabited by "some form of energy that hasn't been explained yet," Bloom said. "The Earth is full of pockets of energy, and there might be some sort of scientific explanation."

Since the early 1950s, some outrageous theories have surrounded the Bermuda Triangle. Among them: Space aliens hunt for human study subjects there; the lost continent of Atlantis exerts an evil influence there; or black-hole vortices pull objects into other dimensions from there. There also are more reasonable explanations, such as methane gas, erupting from ocean sediments, have overwhelmed vessels or that strong magnetic forces can confuse sailors and pilots. NOAA contends that hurricanes and tropical storms, which frequently churn through the triangle, and other bad weather are more likely explanations for ships or planes getting into trouble.

Additionally, the Gulf Stream, a fast-moving current that runs parallel to the U.S. East Coast, can cause "rapid, sometimes violent, changes in weather" — and that numerous shallow water areas near Caribbean islands can be treacherous to ship navigation, the agency said. "The ocean has always been a mysterious place to humans, and when foul weather or poor navigation is involved, it can be a very deadly place," NOAA said. "This is true all over the world."

NOAA noted the U.S. Board of Geographic Names does not recognize the Bermuda Triangle as an official name. Further, the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard have no official maps to delineate the boundaries of the Bermuda Triangle. "Their experience suggests that the combined forces of nature and human fallibility outdo even the most incredulous science fiction," NOAA said.

Read the article at Sun-Sentinel Online

The Travel Channel: Mysteries at the Museum

We received news from the Flight 19 Denmark Group in Copenhagen. Thank you to Physician Bjørn Madsen for sharing with us stories of their reunions. Despite horrible weather, some brave ones, were still able to gather to commemorate the event. We are glad to know they are safe.

Thank you to Photographer William Cantrell for covering the 68th Anniversary of Flight 19 Memorial Ceremony this past December 5, 2013.

View Gallery:

The 68th Anniversary of Flight 19 Memorial Ceremony
Photos are available for viewing now:

Thank you to George Maznicki's Photography

VIEW THE SLIDESHOW

On this Veterans Day, November 11, 2013, we would like to honor the memory of Walter Reed Parpart, Jr., who on December 5, 1945 disappeared while on a flight training exercise in the area of the Bermuda Triangle. Walter was part of Flight 19 (also known as The Lost Patrol), a Squadron of 5 TBM/TBF Avengers that vanished without a trace. The squadron's flight plan was scheduled to take them due east from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale for 141 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back over a final 140-mile leg to complete the exercise. The flight never returned to base. The disappearance was attributed by Navy investigators to navigational error leading to the aircraft running out of fuel, however the "Mystery of flight 19" still remains one of the great aviation mysteries, as nobody really knows what happened.

Walter Reed Parpart, Jr., was the radioman in FT-28, piloted by Flight Leader, Lt. Charles Taylor. There was no known photograph of Walter, and there are no original artifacts known to the public that relate directly to Flight 19. Until now, when one of Walter's relatives contacted the Museum to tell us her story:

Oct 24, 2013
From: Maureen Campbell Clark, Manchester, N. J.
To: Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum

"As per our telephone conversation, my mother Dorothy Campbell was married to Walter Reed Parpart, Sr. (1959-1963). Young Walter was an only child. He so wanted to join the navy he pleaded with his dad to sign him in at age 17. His mother was American of Irish heritage (McMahon) and his father's family was from Newburgh, NY. of Basque heritage. After the tragedy as years passed his mother drifted into a deep depression and blamed his dad for her loss until her passing... His father seemed to accept the black hole, weather anomaly theory.  I believe his brief marriage to my mother prior to his passing was brief but joyful. The seven photos processed very well and have two with Walter Parpart, Jr in dress whites. There is no mistaking him as he is the image of his dad. Perhaps you can identify his buddies. There are letters from Mrs. Katherine Taylor and a Mr. Gorman, explaining his weather anomaly, black hole theory. I noticed the House Resolution 500 (Congressional Record) failed to include Walter's last name. Has that been corrected?  I hope so. I will be forwarding all to you as soon as my nephew Kenneth Campbell who alerted me to this web site, comes this week."

Exhibit prepared and curated by Minerva Bloom
for the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum

New Artifacts Shed Light on Lauderdale's Lost Patrol
By Ken Kaye, Sun Sentinel 4:49 a.m. EST, November 11, 2013

Sixty-eight years after five Navy torpedo bombers took off from Fort Lauderdale and vanished without a trace, artifacts have surfaced that bring one of aviation's greatest mysteries into sharper focus. Among them are an aviator's flight logbook, a citation personally signed by President Harry Truman and never-before seen photos of crew members. All had been sitting unnoticed in an envelope for about 50 years in the home of a crew member's family. Now, the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum — which is dedicated to keeping the memory of the ill-fated Flight 19 squadron alive — plans to eventually display the items.

Also known as the Lost Patrol, the five TBM Avengers took off on Dec. 5, 1945, on a routine training exercise. But 90 minutes after takeoff, the planes got lost, ran out of fuel and apparently ditched in the Atlantic. Despite a massive search, the 14 crew members of Flight 19 perished.

"I'm sure the families of the crew members have other logbooks, but this one is the only artifact, known to the public, directly relating to Flight 19," said Minerva Bloom, a volunteer docent at the museum. She was referring to the aviator logbook of Walter Parpart Jr., the radioman in the lead plane, which documents his training in the months prior to squadron's disappearance and has some interesting side notes.

"Japan accepted peace terms. I still don't trust them," Parpart scribbled in the log on Aug. 12, 1945, three days after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

How did the items surface? A family member recently noticed Parpart's photo wasn't included on the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum website. Ken Campbell, a Milwaukee businessman, knew the museum planned to hold its annual ceremony on Dec. 5, honoring the squadron. So he contacted his aunt, Maureen Campbell Clark, Parpart's stepsister, and told her about the photo omission. That's when she remembered the envelope, dug into it and not only found two photos of a happy-go-lucky Parpart, posing with his crew member buddies, but also the logbook and the Truman citation. She also discovered letters from the flight leader's mother, questioning whether the Navy could have prevented the flight from getting lost. Campbell Clark, 73, of Manchester, N.J., immediately contacted the museum last month and offered to donate them.

"What are the chances that I even held on to this stuff after all these years?" she said. "But I'm so glad we were able to make the contribution."

Until now, the Naval Air Station museum, on the west side of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, had been unable to find any photos of Parpart, said Bloom. "He was a beautiful young man, excited to do something for his country," she said.

The museum must make some internal improvements before it can open to the public and display the items. Mainly, it needs to install a handicapped restroom, which officials hope to do soon. Housed in one of the original Naval Air Station buildings, the museum is loaded with books, plane models, photos, uniforms, a flight simulator and other memorabilia from Fort Lauderdale during World War II.

Parpart, who was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., signed up with the Navy shortly after graduating high school at age 17. He had the blessing of his father, but not his mother. "He thought the war was coming to an end, and he so wanted to join Navy," said Campbell Clark, whose mother married Parpart's father after both had been widowed. Campbell Clark never knew her stepbrother; she was only four years old when he took off with Flight 19. His logbook survived because he kept it in his locker rather than on the ill-fated journey, she said. The log shows he started flying torpedo bombers as a radioman, sitting behind the pilot, in April 1945. He was also trained to fire one of the plane's machine guns. On Aug. 24, 1945, he wrote in the book, "Graduate tomorrow. Get wings on Saturday." In all, the book recorded about 77 hours of training, with the last entry being a 4.6 hour torpedo training flight on Nov. 28. About a week later, he was the radioman on FT-28, piloted by Lt. Charles Taylor, the leader of Flight 19. The flight was supposed to make a practice bomb run in the Bahamas and conduct a navigational exercise.

But after departing the Bahamas, Taylor reported his compasses were malfunctioning and apparently got disoriented in night and bad weather. Most experts think the planes went down somewhere east of Daytona Beach. During the ensuring search, 13 more servicemen were killed when their large twin-engine seaplane crashed. In the aftermath, numerous theories arose, including that the planes were simply swallowed by the Bermuda Triangle, the mythical area between Miami, Puerto Rico and Bermuda, where hundreds of ships and planes have purportedly vanished.

Jon Myhre, of Sebastian, a former air traffic controller who has been searching for Flight 19 for more than three decades, said the new artifacts provide insight into that era. "The interest in the flight has waned over the years," he said. "But I think people still like it, because it's still a mystery."

kkaye@tribune.com or 954-572-2085.
Copyright © 2013, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

W A T C H    T H E    V I D E O
Never before seen photos of Flight 19 radioman Walter Reed Parpart, Jr. have recently surfaced.
Story by videographer and editor Taimy Alvarez, Sun Sentinel.

(JR. Graphic Mysteries)

One day in 1945, five US Air Force bombers flew out to sea on a routine mission - and disappeared without a trace. Were they victims of a supernatural force? Explore the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

• Age Range: 7 and up
  
• Paperback: 24 pages
• Publisher: Rosen Publishing Group (August 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1404221573
• ISBN-13: 978-1404221574

Thank you to Mary Kelly from Bedford, Texas, who donated this book to the Museum! While on a Librarian's Convention in Fort Worth, Mary found this  illustrated book for children.

To NAS Ft. Lauderdale Historical Association:

"Hello, my name is Edward M. Steidler and I was in training at the NAS Fort Lauderdale in WW2. I volunteered for the Navy at the age of 17 and applied for the V-6 program which was the Aircrew. Got accepted, then on October 5, 1944 I was shipped to Millington, Tennessee by train. This was the Naval Air Technical Training Center where we took our boots and learned how to take code, etc. The next step was Air Gunnery School at Miami, Florida. Finally, we went to NAS Fort Lauderdale to Air operations where we were assigned a Pilot and became an Aircrew. Here we combined all the skills including torpedoeing ships, ditching procedures, etc. I was assigned to pilot Harry Allen III, from Richmond, VA. I became the belly gunner, and John Payne was the turret gunner.

I thought our training was inconsistent, in that operating the radio gear was skimpy. The TBM had a radio setup called GP which had several coils that you plugged into the radio to set your frequency. Most of us felt that particular session was not very thorough. All during this training, John Payne was chronically airsick and would throw up. Usually on me. I didn't complain because he was the only support for his mother and she needed his flight pay.

Remembering Flight 19 incident: On 5 December 1945, the Flight 19 incident occurred. The day was warm, clear, and beautiful. About supper time, a front came through and it became bitterly cold. We were told the lost flight would be in the water about 7pm. I remember how sorry I felt for them ditching in the dark, and even if they got into their rafts they would be soaking wet and freezing cold. Our crew took part in the search. As I remember, the total search was 5 days, and our crew flew 3 of the 5 days. Never saw a trace of them.

Hurricane Incident: I don't remember the dates, but a hurricane struck south Florida and destroyed a Blimp Hanger I believe, located in Hollywood. The personnel at the blimp base was set free and NAS Fort Lauderdale was to furnish guards, and we were asked to volunteer. I said I'm not volunteering for anything, but I was watching a movie when an SP came in and selected 12 of us for something. We were put in a dump truck and taken to the blimp base. The local officials put all their equipment in this immense hanger which was destroyed and burned up. The metal equipment was melted. All the food at the blimp base was spoiling, so the mess cooks set the grandest table of all time. From steak to lobster, but we couldn't even make a dent. On the way back to NAS Fort Lauderdale after several days, we were driven through a black district. The people were sitting in chairs out in their yards, their houses were gone, and the mosquitoes were coming out.

Transfer out: My pilot transferred to dive bombers which were a two-place aircraft. He kept me and let Payne go. We went into training near Virginia Beach, VA. We were assigned to Bomber Squadron 3, which was on the USS Yorktown. It was proposed to replace the SBD Dauntless dive-bombers with the newer SB2C Helldiver dive-bomber, but the Yorktown got sunk at Midway before the transfer was accomplished. The VB-3 planes were scattered over the surviving carriers, so VB-3 disappeared. We never got another carrier assignment so we stayed in training until discharge.

I have included my picture where I look awful young. I am 86 now and in fair health. I have been happily married for 65 years."

Ed Steidler
Aviation Radioman 3C

The Flight 19 Soccer Club visited the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum

Flight 19 is an independent supporters group based in Fort Lauderdale/Broward County, FL, exclusively supporting the professional soccer club team The Fort Lauderdale Strikers. The group was conceived in 2010 to stir up support in the area, in anticipation of the return of the legendary Strikers and North American Soccer League in 2011. Their mission is to rally passionate support. On game-days the group works together to provide an electric atmosphere at Lockhart Stadium, home of the Strikers, by providing a home-field advantage for the Strikers. Through singing, chanting, tifo displays, waving flags, and banging drums for the full 90 minutes, this support group strives to help their team get the win in every game.

From their Official Website:
"The group is named in honor of Flight 19, a squadron of 5 TBM Avenger torpedo bombers that took off from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale (now the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport) in 5 December of 1945, disappearing in perhaps the most famous incident associated with the Bermuda Triangle. Our crest is based on the roundel insignia found on WWII era US Military Aircraft, the classic NASL style soccer ball and the triangular shape of, you guessed it, the Bermuda Triangle. The story of Flight 19 is a part of the history of Fort Lauderdale, and considering the long time home of the Strikers, Lockhart Stadium, is situated on land that was once part of an airport built to train WWII Naval pilots, and is still under the flight path of FTL Executive Airport, we feel it is a fitting name to represent our efforts to honor Fort Lauderdale and our rich history."

Website: http://www.flight-19.com