Cramsie Day 2012

Bill Cramsie and 43-9699 continue to make news as we mark today the 67th Anniversary of the day that he and his gunners Charles Henshaw and Jack Steward disappeared without a trace.  Those who are familiar with the story will know that Bill has not rested in peace during that time.  In fact, he has pulled, pushed, cajoled and clawed his way into the hearts and minds of scores of people from California to the U.K.  The search for Bill Cramsie began seven years ago.  It should have begun sixty years earlier, but a tiny human foible precluded that.

Readers of this blog will know about "First to Fall" and about Ross Stewart.  Some will know that Ross discovered an anomaly in the records that may well lead to closure on this search.  As Lt. Cramsie was flying alone at 400 feet above Bradwell Bay, he made a call for a bearing to the RAF base there.  His hope was to make an emergency landing before the overburdened left engine of his A-20 Havoc failed completely.  He had lost the other engine much earlier due to intense flak over France. 

 

The call was heard by his friend, classmate and fellow pilot Marion S. (Scotty) Street, who was also flying on one engine and could see Cramsie below him.  Street was within sight of the main flight as they crossed the English Channel and entered Bradwell Bay.  They were on a direct course from just east of Dunkirk to their home station at Wethersfield.  The call for a bearing was heard and acknowledged by the ground station and a determination of Cramsie's position was made by triangulation of the radio signal.  That location was logged at latitude and longitude coordinates that placed Cramsie at 40 miles east of the station at Bradwell Bay and actually in the North Sea.  The Missing Air Crew Report includes a map with that location marked by an "X" and an arrow showing the coordinate he was advised to follow.

This reported location has always been at odds with common sense and the official reports of pilots who saw Cramsie's plane below them on the return from France to England.  Ross Stewart astutely realized that the reported longitude must contain a number inversion.  Plotting the corrected coordinates put this position precisely on the line and at the proper distance from land that all contemporary reports of pilot would suggest.  Ross also discovered through an internet charting resource that there is an unidentified aircraft wreck at this very spot, which happens to be a large sand bank that is partially exposed at the lowest tides.  He then located a 35-year-old British aerial survey photo that showed a twin-engined aircraft at that spot.  The photo was taken from 26,000 feet and detail was insufficient for positive identification, but it looked very much like the profile of an A-20 Havoc.

As Ross expanded his search for information to local divers and fishermen, he met Roger Gaspar an expert in these waters and a man with extraordinary background and skills.  On Easter Sunday morning, the two of them coordinated a trip to the site with the help of Alan Bird, an Oyster boat's captain, to determine if that wreck was still to be found.  Why on Easter?  It has to do with the Spring tides being at their lowest point of the year for a couple days and that bad weather was forecast for the following days.  These intrepid explorers boarded the waiting craft at 4:00 AM and anchored off the sand bank in the early AM, approaching it with a dinghy as the tide receded.  Their effort was well rewarded.  At precisely the coordinates expected, they did find the wreckage of an aircraft and some indications that it may be an A-20.  Further examination of the wreckage is presently underway and it is hopeful that a solid identification will soon be possible.

The main part of the aircraft which was visible in the 1970s aerial survey is apparently now covered with sand, but is likely in the immediate vicinity of the tail sections and main landing gear shown in the photos above.

The story of Bill Cramsie and "9699" has always seemed to write itself and to lead people to the place they need to go.  I feel comforted in the fact that it happens to others, not just to me.  There are a lot of people with the desire to see closure on this long episode and obviously a lot of will to prevail in that quest.

Project 9699 in the News

The current issue of British Ministry of Defence Police magazine "Talk Through" has a wonderful centerfold article by Chief Inspector Ross Stewart about Project 9699, the search for 671st Bomb Sq. pilot William Edward Cramsie and crew lost in Bradwell Bay, England on 10 April 1944.  Click on the link below to download a pdf file of the issue and then scroll to pages 17 through 19.

  http://tiny.cc/dx7jk

 

Carving Up the Promise

Those who are offended by political statements should stop reading here and go to a more comfortable place in cyberspace.  What I am going to discuss is political and may offend some readers.

As a Life Member of the Military Officers Association of America, I keep up to date on military issues through the organization's monthly magazine and its website.  In the December 2011 issue of Military Officer, one will find an article titled "Et Tu, SASC?  This headline caught my attention immediately, being that I have long been a student of Roman history.  It is a play on the last words of Julius Caesar as he was assassinated at the Roman Senate on the Ides of March, 44 BC, "Et tu Brute" or "you too Brutus?".  It was a statement that would become immortal as a synonym for betrayal as Brutus thrust his dagger into the withering body of Caesar.  Why would the MOAA head their discussion of military health issues with such a graphic and volatile reference?  Perhaps because the situation demanded it.

The managers of our trust, the government of the United States of America, have failed pitifully and have squandered the tremendous gift that "the greatest generation" gave to us — a nation virtually independent of foreign influence.  Today, we are becoming mere pawns on the world stage being sucked dry of our vastly accumulated wealth through a sea of errant thinking and mismanagement.  We have become a reactive nation rather than a noble leader in virtually all areas other than military.  We still possess the most effective fighting force the world has ever seen—what a shame that our diplomatic and economic skills are not up to that level.  The former Captains of Industry are seen as plunderers in the New World Order and it's a blessing to them that they all died long ago.  Most of their profit making ventures have been driven offshore by a national mentality where consumption trumps production, legitimate profit is assailed as social corruption and incentives to work are replaced by incentives not to work.  Those of us still dealing in Horatio Alger fashion with the idiocy of life simply get to stand by and watch our legacy vanish through self indulgence in the name of egalitarianism.

The socialistic largesse of government has buried us so far in debt that the wolves are at the door baying for lunch, and that is what the MOAA article is all about.  It is a synopsis of Washington infighting over the military budget and nothing is so sacred these days as to escape being offered as a sacrificial cow to the gods of finance.  One of the most sacred promises that the U.S. Government made to all career military personnel was a retirement system that promised health care for life.  There were no caveates or warnings that this was a tentative offer, it was an outright promise that the sort of health care that we received while on active duty would be provided for us in our retirement years.  Now, the Senate Armed Services Committee is playing the part of Brutus, standing in the Senate hall with a dagger about to draw blood from an old friend and indeed its mentor.  The committee is recommending that the military retirement system should be more like civilian retirement plans—in particular concerning healthcare.  Of course everyone knows what great shape the civilian retirement health care plans are in.

That train wreck notwithstanding, it might seem that this would be an improvement over the current Tri-Care system.  Tri-Care is so pathetic in its ratio of approved payments versus billed services that a frightening number of health care providers will not accept Tri-Care patients.  For those living in rural America, the nearest provider that accepts Tri-Care may be hours away from where one lives and choice is a pipe dream.  One is lucky to have coverage at all.  I actually wrote to one of my Senators about this problem and it was forwarded to the Pentagon's chief of health care services.  Springfield, Missouri is the nearest large city to our home (90 miles) and there are three major hospitals there.  All three have rejected Tri-Care coverage.  The letter I received in reply from the Pentagon was a curt admonition to stop complaining.  No great surprise I suppose.

Unfortunately, the net result of the Senate committee recommendation would be added cost to the military member and a further erosion of the promise.  It gets even worse when a retired military member turns 65.   Part of my military retirement package was medical care for life for myself and for my spouse during my lifetime.  The provider was "Tri-Care".  Over time, the government added a provision that when a retiree turns 65, the primary provider shifts from Tri-Care to Medicare.  That didn't seem so bad, since the coverage was similar, but they also started deducting nearly $100 per month from my Social Security check to pay for the Medicare premium.  So much for the free medical promise.  Now, they are raising the per month fee over the next couple years to some uncertain level (but certainly more).  While the actual premium that will be paid in 2014 is a matter of debate, and will undoubtedly be less than the $247 claimed by ultra-conservatives, there is little doubt that I will be paying more per year for my "free" medical coverage and we will soon have to pay double that per year to retain coverage on my spouse who currently is free under my retirement plan.  And, we have no choice in the matter -- the switch from Tri-Care to Medicare is mandatory.  That, in my estimation, is a broken promise.  This may seem like sour grapes, but all the years that I served in the military they factored in my retirement health care benefit as a part of my total compensation and paid me less because of it.  In other words, they treated it like cash in my pocket.  Now they are stealing the cash that I worked for and banked as retirement compensation. 

As military retirees were nostalgically carving Turkey this week in Thanksgiving, our elected officials were busy carving up the promises made decades ago.  In that light, how can any of us really have faith in the promises made today?