G1ARP-PLAN

The George 1
Repatriation Project

“Our Navy will never give up looking for a shipmate, regardless of how long or how difficult that search may be.”

Admiral Gary Roughead - US Navy - Chief of Naval Operations - August 2009

THE PLAN

Gordon Scott begins his 268 foot decent down the twin ice shafts to the WWII P-38 Glacier Girl
©1992 The Greenland Expedition Society - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The George 1 Repatriation Project Recovery Team comprised of core Greenland Expedition Society (GES) Team members will employ the unique technology and techniques developed over 7 expeditions to recover the WWII P-38 Lightning now known as ‘Glacier Girl’ from 268 feet (82 meters) below the Greenland ice sheet surface. George 1 Repatriation Project’s team leader, Lou Sapienza is a former 3-time Greenland Expedition Society (GES) team member originally selected by GES team leaders Pat Epps and Richard Taylor to participate in the recovery of Glacier Girl.

Greenland Expedition Society team leaders Pat Epps and Richard Taylor continue to lend their generous wealth of expertise to ensure the successful recovery of Ensign Maxwell "Val" Lopez, Naval Aviator, Chief Petty Officer Fred Williams, Aviation Machinist Mate 1st Class and Chief Petty Officer Wendell "Bud" Hendersin Aviation Radioman 1st Class.The George 1 Antarctic Operations Plan

The logistics, planning, engineering and equipment acquisition for the repatriation began in September of 2007 and is now complete. It will take approximately 6 months to manufacture and assemble the special one-off melt device known as the "Super Gopher."

Super Gopher Melt Device prior to initialization in 1992 on its way to melt a 4 foot diameter
hole 268 feet into the Greenland ice sheet to the WWII P-38 Lightning now known as "Glacier Girl."

The actual Antarctic recovery phase begins in early November at the beginning of the Antarctic (austral) summer. Expected mission duration is 45 to 50 days — with weather contingencies for 60 days.

What follows is a simplified version of the plan to recover, repatriate, and return the remains of Ensign Max Lopez, Chief Petty Officer Bud Hendersin, and Chief Petty Officer Fred Williams to their families for burial in the United States.

1. Aerial Borne Ice Penetrating Radar Site Survey

(Navy/JPAC recovery Only)

A.    The precise location of the George 1 crash site and debris field will be obtained by conducting an aerial borne ice penetrating radar (GPR) grid survey from an altitude of 500 feet.
B.    The aircraft will fly (20) 20 kilometer parallel lines @ 1 kilometer intervals and then fly the same grid perpendicular to the 1st grid (total 800 kilometers.)
C.    The initial grid run is based upon:
        i.    A United States Geological Survey (USGS) analysis requisitioned by US Navy Casualty Office   (BUPERS) in 2001 as part of the “Mariner George 1 Crash Location Analysis.” This BUPERS request was made in response to a family member’s inquiry into the feasibility of a possible recovery.
        ii.    A brief Chilean Navy P-3 2004 GPR overflight of the area in 2004. Both the USGS analysis and    P-3 overflight were specifically commissioned for analysis of the original George 1 crash site    and the movement of the Noville glacier as it moves toward the Bellingshausen Sea.

D.    Two different highly and specially modified aircraft are available to accomplish the overflight. In both aircraft, both wings have been modified to accommodate radar antenna clusters to send and receive special radar pulses capable of penetrating the glacial ice, in many instances, down several thousand feet to map ice thickness and the terrain of the bedrock below. The aircraft available are:
          i.    The Basler T-67 (http://www.baslerturbo.com/kohnen_antarctic.html) — a highly modified and revised WWII-era DC-3 airframe retrofitted with advanced avionics, sophisticated electronics as well as turbo props and lengthened wings.
         ii.    The de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter (tail #: CKB) — a 20-passenger STOL (short takeoff and landing) utility aircraft is also equipped with similar technology.
Both of these aircraft are uniquely modified with radar antenna and interior instrumentation for the sole purpose of polar scientific radar mapping terrain below the glacier surface.

2. Surface Sled Borne Ice Penetrating Radar Debris Field Survey

A.    Directly after the Aerial Borne IPR Site Survey an advance team will set a survival camp and begin a "boots on the snow” IPR site survey to precisely outline:
    i.    the wing,
    ii.    engines,
    iii.   tail section and
    iv.   the three tents used by the 6 survivors while they waited for rescue.

The Mala/GEL IPR/GPS Team will utilize Mala/GEL IPR equipment coupled with highly accurate GPS to map the G1 debris field. The tents will be visible to the IPR because the survivors under-floored their tents with diamond plate from the George 1 PBM-5 Mariner to keep the men from making uncomfortable depressions in the snow as they slept. After the 1st hole is melted down to the George 1 crew, a second hole will be melted down to tent/tail section area to recover artifacts including an exposed but undeveloped roll of film shot by G1 survivor Robbie Robbins.

3. Team Deployment

Once the grid is run and the debris field marked on the surface (within 24 to 48 hours of deployment) the remainder of the team, supplies and equipment will be ferried to site by air. The Mala/GEL IPR will return to the US once their debris field mapping is complete. A more permanent tent camp with field mess tent will be set, water manufacture begun and equipment organized. The full team will involve twenty-three people, including a documentary still and video camera crews.

4. Hot Water Probe

A modified hot water pressure washer probe will melt 4- to 6-inch holes down to the George 1's starboard wing, where survivor Robbie Robbins painted the names of the three deceased crew members.

5. Remote Camera Observation

After probe contact with the starboard wing, a water filled chamber will be melted at the wing to enable a sealed camera, designed by team member Alberto Behar of the Jet Propulsion Lab, Pasadena, to help us identify the probe’s precise position on the wing. Position will be determined using:
     i.     Photographs of the original wreckage depicting paint schemes, painted names, or other                       identifying features and,
      ii.     That of rivet or sheet metal patterns or other identifying features from photographs of the last remaining Martin Mariner PBM-5A flying boat (the 5A is a wheeled version of the PBM) in existence at the Tucson Air and Space Museum.
     iii.     This position will then be utilized to calculate the setup site of the Thermal Meltdown Unit (TMU), AKA the "Super Gopher," the device that will melt a 4-foot diameter hole down to a certain location directly on top of the wing.

6. Thermal Meltdown Unit Setup

©1992 Louis A Sapienza _ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
1992 Greenland Expedition Society Team Leader Richard Taylor assembles the nose guidance ring of the Thermal Melt Unit (TMU)
aka the "Super Gopher" by the team.

Once senior team members are satisfied that an accurate location has been obtained or calculated:
      i.    Another hot water bore will be melted to a depth of the wreckage.
      ii. Sections of PVC pipe will be allowed to rest anchored to the wing at the bottom of the hole to serve as a guidance device threaded through the center nose of the "Super Gopher." This guidance pipe ensures that the various ice lenses and differing densities of ice don’t push the "Super Gopher" in random directions away from its intended target.
      iii.    The "Super Gopher" will be assembled, along with its boiler, hoses, pumps, generators and ancillary equipment. Water previously melted will be mixed with an environmentally friendly blend of anti-freeze and loaded into the hot water recirculation device.

7. Shaft Melting

Upon testing of all its systems the "Super Gopher" will begin 24/7 operations melting a 4-foot (1.2-meter) wide shaft to the determined position on the wing. Non-dissipating water below the glacier firn line will be pumped out and reused. At a rate of melt of about 1 foot an hour, the "Super Gopher" will arrive at its destination of 150 feet in about 150 hours (6 days 6 hours).

8. Work Cavern Melting.

Pumped warm water fed through a nozzle will be used to excavate an additional 12 foot deep shaft around the leading edge of the wing, tunneling below the wing, using it as a safety ceiling to the grave-site. A cold weather anthropologist will release the bodies from the ice. A sump pump re-circulates the melted ice water topside and also be used to keep the cavern from filling with any additional melt water.

9. Excavation of the Frozen Bodies

The cold weather anthropologist will excavate the frozen remains of Max Lopez, Bud Hendersin, and Fred Williams — and their personal effects — and respectfully raise them to the surface. Once on the surface, and Honor Guard will remain with the bodies until their transport to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command's Central Identification Lab at Hickam Field, Honolulu, Hawaii.

10. Recovery of Survivor’s Exposed Film

An option remains for a second hole to be melted to Robbie Robbins tent in an attempt to recover exposed film he mistakenly left behind when the surviving men were rescued.

11. Site Cleanup

Camp and equipment will be disassembled and all material brought in will be returned to either Patriot Hills or McMurdo for return to the states and disposal.

12. Identification at the JPAC Central Identification Laboratory

The three bodies will remain frozen and preserved while they are flown, under military Honor Guard, to the JPAC Central Identification Laboratory at Hickam AFB in Hawaii. JPAC scientists expect that the men's remains will be well preserved, and that dental records will confirm the visual identification. Mitochondrial DNA will most likely not be necessary.

13. Reunification of Remains with Families
After identification has been completed, the men's bodies and their personal effects will be returned to their families for a full military honors funeral to be buried with their parents in their hometown cemeteries.

    * Chief Petty Officer Wendell K. Hendersin, Aviation Radioman 1st Class, USN, was 25 years old when he died, will be buried in Sparta, Wisconsin. He would be 89 years old.
    * Ensign Maxwell A. Lopez, Naval Aviator, USNR, was 20 years old when he died, will be buried in Newport, Rhode Island. He would be 84 years old.
    * Chief Petty Officer Frederick W. Williams, Aviation Machinist's Mate 1st Class, USN, who was 26 years old when he died, will be buried in Clarksburg, Tennessee. Fred would be 90 years old.

Your support is vital to the effort. Help make the mission a reality. Become a part of the mission. Sign our Petition to the President of the United States to bring Val, Bud and Fred home. Ask your friends to sign.

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