A Story That's Hard to Believe

Over the years that I have been involved with “My Gal Sal” a number of things have happened to challenge ones imagination.  For example:  “Sal” landed on the icecap in June of 1942.  The Lost Squadron ditched in July of 1942 about sixty miles away.  “Sal’s” remains stayed on top of the ice and snow for over fifty-three years.  The Lost Squadron was covered with 260 feet of snow and ice until discovered in 1991.  There is no question you have to ask yourself, “Why wasn’t “Sal” covered with all this ice and snow?”  Fate maybe – what definitely strengthens the fate idea is the following.  This part of the story is exactly the way it happened.

A little over three months ago a gentleman visited “My Gal Sal’s” restoration hangar.  I had an opportunity to show him our progress.  He was impressed and thanked me for the tour and the efforts that so many had put forth to preserve this piece of history.  A few weeks later I received a phone call from the assistant curator of the San Diego Aerospace Museum located in Balboa Park.  He proceeded to tell me that he met a gentleman who was visiting the museum and during their discussion the visitor had mentioned his visit to “My Gal Sal”.  The assistant curator became interested in the details of the restoration because he remembered that he had seen a box that was stored in their storage room with the name “My Gal Sal” printed on it.  Apparently this box had been in storage since 1965.  After opening the box he found a number of wonderful artifacts of “My Gal Sal” in perfect condition.  One of the most exciting artifacts in that box was the .45 cal. sidearm, holster, and web belt that belonged to “Sal’s” co-pilot, Lt. Wilson McGough.  (I had the pleasure of calling Wilson, who lives in St. Louis, and telling him that his gun, that he left behind by mistake, had been found.)  Other pieces from “My Gal Sal” were high altitude boots, a flashlight, a medical kit, a fountain pen, the original navigator’s tools, throat mike, and a number of pictures that may never have been seen before.  To say the least, this find was something beyond our belief.

The frosting on this wonderful story is that the folks at the San Diego Aerospace Museum felt these artifacts belonged with “Sal” and donated them to the Ultimate Sacrifice Memorial Foundation where they will soon be on display.  We can’t thank them enough.

Now you are probably wondering how the artifacts got from the downed B-17 that landed on the Greenland icecap to the San Diego Aerospace Museum.  What we think happened goes back to 1965.  We know that “Sal” was discovered in 1964 by an Air Force flight over the icecap.  In 1965 the government sent in a crew to remove certain parts from “Sal” for research.  (Many of these parts are on display at the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum located in Dayton, Ohio.)  We believe that during the parts recovery these personal artifacts were removed as well by one of the recovery team and sent to a friend at the San Diego Museum.  The friend received these artifacts and probably put them in the storage room and forgot about them.  There they sat for the past thirty-seven years. 

The big question is, “Were these artifacts that have been stored for thirty-seven years waiting to be rejoined with this great piece of history called “My Gal Sal”?”  Fate? Luck?  What do you think?