Article By Ken Kaye, Sun Sentinel
5:30 p.m. EDT, September 15, 2014
Thank you to Museum Volunteer Gary Adams, a former Pilot for Mackey International Airlines for sharing with us an historic event! On September 18, a Jet Blue Airlines plane was the first to land on the new runway at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport: History of FLL Airport: Fort Lauderdale airport once home to golfers, hunters
Article By Ken Kaye, Sun Sentinel 5:30 p.m. EDT, September 15, 2014
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WALTER REED PARPART, JR., ARM3c USNR Radioman with FT-28 - Flight 19 New Artifacts shed light on one of the great aviation mysteries: with never before seen photographs, a Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale log book, original family correspondence, and a Presidential citation hand signed by Harry Truman. 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." Walter R. Parpart, Jr., Aviators Flight Log Book & Presidential Citation Hand-signed by Harry Truman Correspondence:
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. |
Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale MuseumNational Register of Historic Places. A Florida Heritage Site. Only remaining structure from WWII left on the naval base property. Home of Flight 19 one of the great aviation mysteries. A 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. The Only Military Museum in Broward County. Support the Museum at Amazon
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