Richard Leahy has the distinction of having visitied the Lutes P-47 the greatest number of times of anyone in the world. He shares his feelings about the recovery of the wreck.
Feelings About The Recovery
I have actually visited the site a total of six times. Am sorry to see it go. I imagine that Greinert will balkanise it to build up other P-47s that he has in Australia now. It was 8,000 feet ASL and would not have corroded for possibly after another one hundred years plus. CILHI advised me either by telephone or letter that they intended to attempt to recover Lutes and that would I not attempt to remove the aircraft. This was sometime after 2000. I never did have any intention of removing the aircraft. Someone suggested to CILHI that I had this in mind. I am having difficulty in locating the advice, (letter, notes or fax etc) from CILHI. It is in my CILHI files somewhere and I am going to need to allocate quite a bit of time to dig the letters out. I have over the years accumulated quite a bit of info on crash sites etc. I am assuming that they did write and not simply telephone me.
Firstly, there was no chance that the P-47 would have slid down the hill. There is simply too much vegetation for this to happen I have a lot of photographs to back this up. It is possible that the site may have ended up being pillaged. Not all that likely because of it's remoteness. The landslide stories were promulgated to keep people like Robert Greinert away from the site. I make no apology for this. There was a big earthquake in the area some time ago and a lot of the countryside did in fact fall away. That the P-47 did not budge as a result of these earthquakes clearly indicates that it was firmly in position and not likely to move.
There is no doubt whatsoever that Lutes, assuming he was in an injured state, could have well dragged himself under the broken off wing in search for some sort of shelter. There is no doubt that Lutes exited the aircraft in the manner described by Greinert. However NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE can predict where he went or what he did. I do not recall Hagen mentioning to me that he had located an empty ration tin when I took him up there.
I have actually visited a site where exactly this happened, C-46 44-78490. Badly broken passengers moved from the rear fuse (still in one piece although broken open) and covered a distance of about 10 to 20 meters and positioned themselves right up under the starboard wing section. I actually have photographs of these remains in situ.. This was the only shelter available anywhere. If Lutes was badly injured he would have been in a similar state, and may well have done the same thing.
Therefor it remains my firm opinion that this site should have been further investigated by JPAC and I also believe that it was their intention to do so. Whether Greinert succeeded in sweet talking them around this when he met them by chance in Lae recently, I do not know. I will endeavor to talk to the Anthrop when they return from the Campbell C-47 site, should be anytime now.
Just by the way, each and every CILHI group that I took to Lute's P-47 site clearly stated to me that they would most certainly return at some later time to carry out a thorough search for Lutes. Greinert's dismissal of the possibility that Lutes may still be in the vicinity of his aircraft is simply a feeble attempt by Greinert to justiify his removal of an aircraft from an unresolved MIA site. I am not aware that Greinert was provided with any written approval to carry out this operation from either CILHI or JPAC
I have always fully complied with the protocol as set out by CILHI during my visits to possible MIA sites. The biggest NO NO of all is to in any way interfere with the site or to relocate human remains. I have since the 1970s been directly and indirectly responsible for the discovery and eventual repatriation of over thirty American MIAs in this country. All of this I have fully documented. One of my first discoveries was a C-47A 42-24215 commanded by Liut Stanley D. Campbell with three or four other souls on board has finally been fully recovered by JPAC (CILHI) this last three weeks.
Future Recovery Activity?
Interestingly, I understand that the locations of Lute's P-47, a P-38 in the Sepik, Sully's P-38 and a few others were in fact released by myself because I became careless and far too trusting with my records. I actually have about forty GPS sites in my files that I am now days very careful with.Curiously,the museum's director and a few others within the organisation would appear to have total authority to issue export permits for historical war relics to just about anyone that they fancy. Already, a lot of material, some of it extremely valuable; eg. the Kawasaki Ki-61 originally from Yilui in the Sepik. This aircraft has "gone" from the Museum"s grounds. The word is that the Ki-61 is to be restored in Australia and returned to PNG at a later date. WHEN? This particular airframe is probably worth over one million U.S. dollars in it's present state. I wonder what guarantees the Museum"s director Soroi Eoe extracted from the "collector" he allowed to remove it [ Movements of Ki-61 640 and Ki-61 299 were reported in October 2004 ]
Recently the Public Accounts committee under the chairmanship of the member for Bogia, the Hon. John Hickey castigated the Museum's director Dr. Soroi Eoe and his staff for mismanaging the Museum's, and therefor public funds. This hearing was written up in the National Newspaper on Sept. 23rd 2004 and the PNG Post Courier newspaper on Oct. 29th 2004. This same director decides who walks off with what when it comes to war relics both in the bush and within the Museum's precints.RETURN TO PART I - Leahy's Feelings About the Recovery
