USAAF
5th AF
317 TCG
41st TCS
Richard Leahy April 1979
David Pennefather 1980
Richard Leahy 1980
Pilot 2nd Lt. Stanley D. Campbell, O-775783 (MIA/KIA)
Co-Pilot 2nd Lt. Robert H. Cameron (MIA/KIA)
Radio Cpl George E. Cunningham (MIA/KIA)
Engineer Cpl Carl A Drain (MIA/KIA)
Passenger Captain Vladimir Sasko (Australian) (MIA/KIA)
Crashed December 10, 1944
MACR 14302
Mission History
Lost on a cargo flight from Dobodura to Hollandia, and crashed into the Sarawaget range, at close to 11,000
feet. Last radio contact was in the Saidor area, when the pilot reported
bad weather. All searches were unsucessful, and on July 15, 1949 the
crew was declared KIA / non-recoverabble.
Richard Korthals 41st TCS recalls:
"Stanley Campbell was flying on my wing on 10 December 1944. We had flown from Cyclops strip at Hollandia to Milne Bay, a 5 1/2 hour flight, to pick up burlap bags of coffee beans. On our return we flew up the coast line to Lae and then turned up the Markham Valley. We encountered a wall of clouds past Nadzab and radioed back and forth in discussing our course of action. I told Stanley that the showers beneath the clouds would probably be spotty and that I was going to get on the deck and make my way over the jungle to Hollandia (which I did - and I can still see the rain showers and the tree tops.) He radioed that he was going north, climbing to get over the mountain range and would then follow the coastline from Wewak area to Hollandia. We parted at that point. He never arrived at Cyclops, our home strip. Several days later I spent hours flying over the area where we parted company looking for either wreckage or strips where he might have made an emergency landing. Nothing was ever found. I have never forgotten that day. The story of the recovery of the wreckage and the bodies has put a period to an unfinished sentence that has been part of me for almost 61 years."
Discovery
Located from the air by Richard Leahy in 1975 at 10,000' in
the Sarawaget Ranges approximately 20 miles north of Nadzab.
Recovery of Remains
Richard
Leahy recalls:
"I first went to this site soon after locating it. I funded
two helicopter
trips to the site and was accompanied by Noel Spalding. It was
on this trip that I collected pertinent data on the aircraft for US Army CILHI. We
also
identified the aircraft as being a C-47A.
My second trip in 1979, made to the site was to accompany a CILHI group that was led by Col. Bill Flick and included Major Johnny Webb and Sgt Kelly. David Pennefather also participated. This was in Apirl, 1979. We did not find too much, only a piece of the pilot's jaw (Lt. Stanley D. Campbell), and the remains of Cpl Drain. We only remained there for a few hours.
The third CILHI expidition, October 1980, was led by Lt. Col. David Rosenberg, one of nature's gentlemen. Sadly I have completely lost track of him. Once again we failed to locate too much although we did recover the remains of one individual, Cpl. Carl A. Drain. We also dug up the skeleton of a monkey. Probably taken along as a mascot.
The remains of three Americans and one unmanifested Australian Doctor [incorrectly identified, actually Captain Vladimir Sasko] remain on site at this time. I firmly believe that a full recovery is possible using the digging techniques developed thirteen years ago by CILHI. We concluded that the doctor was on board because we found his baggage which included incidently an unbroken bottle of Chateau Tanundra Brandy. It was still full. This was subsequently dropped and lost."
Additional Recovery Operations
In November 2004 JPAC returned to this crash site and recovered the
remains of the other four individuals, the results of this work remains and families were identifed late in 2005, case fully resolved.
Relatives
Robert Cameron Karn (son of Robert Henry Cameron)
"I was born Robert Henry Cameron, Jr. (3/12/45) but my mother remarried after the war and I was adopted by Joe Karn (100th Inf Div veteran of France and Germany). So far the military has provided me with precious little information (they didn't even know Cameron had a son until it was brought to their attention by a circuitous route) but I am supposed to receive a briefing pursuant to the funeral next month. All I have been told by the casualty assistance office is that my father's remains were recovered in 2004 but not positively identified until just recently. I was also told that some "personal effects" such as his dog tags and wings were recovered from the site but have been given no further specific information."
Al Peterson (nephew of Captain Vladimir Sasko)
References
Thanks to Richard Leahy for information.
C-47
MIA
Richard Leahy
Pennyfather
