Explorers honored for raising B- 25 from Lake Murray

Expedition leaders - (l-r) John Hodge, Dr. Bob Seigler, and Dr. Bill Vartorella - are shown here on a clip from the History Channel Mega Mover program on the raising of the B- 25 from Lake Murray. They received the Order of the Palmetto from Governor Sanford last week.

The expedition coleaders of The Lake Murray B- 25 Rescue Project - Robert S. Seigler, John A. Hodge, and William F. Vartorella - have received the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina's most prestigious civilian award. They are responsible for the successful retrieval of a rare WWII warbird from beneath 150 feet of water in Lake Murray in 2005 and efforts to preserve it for future generations of Americans.

The Explorers Club Flag #103 flew over the site in Lake Murray while expedition divers, riggers, and team strategists struggled with the sunken B- 25 bomber and against the deflecting elements of a hurricane. The History Channel featured the

retrieval as part of its Mega-

 

 

 

 

Mover series which has been seen by some 50 million viewers worldwide.

The WWII B-25 was raised from Lake Murray in 2005.

The award ceremony occurred at the South Carolina State Museum as part of the reception for the small exhibit on the warbird entitled "Catch of the Day," which runs through January, 2009.

In letters to the honorees, Gov. Mark Sanford pointed to the team's diligence in working "to protect, conserve and safeguard one of our most historical works, the rare B- 25C Mitchell Bomber." State Senators Vincent Sheheen and David Thomas officiated as Governor Sanford's last minute schedule changes prevented his participation.

"South Carolina was a major center for training pilots during World War II," said S.C. State Museum chief curator of history Fritz Hamer. "Because of its many deserted islands and large area, Lake Murray made an ideal training ground for bombing runs. Between 1942 and 1945, thousands of hours of flight time were logged over the lake by pilots who learned how to deliver bombs onto practice targets."

But the practice sorties did not all go perfectly. "After all, these were trainees, not experienced pilots," said Dr. Hamer. "But this particular plane developed engine trouble on April 4, 1943, and forced the crew to ditch the aircraft. Other warbirds also crashed or were ditched, but all but two were salvaged soon after they sank," said the curator. "But at 150 feet, the Army Air Corps decided it wasn't worth the effort to recover this one."

In 1989, Greenville physician and historian Bob Seigler began archival research to find B- 25 wrecks in Lake Murray. In 1993, sonar investigations of the lake identified the location of this aircraft. Because of high interest in raising the now- historic plane, plans were quickly made to recover it. The actual recovery, however, took 12 years.

The flag expedition's efforts finally paid off in September 2005 when the plane was brought to the surface by a team of divers, aviation historians, and explorers. The aircraft was transported to the Southern Museum of Flight in Birmingham, Alabama, for stabilization and permanent exhibition.

In the State Museum's exhibit, visitors see a C- 2 altitude correction computer and an E- 6B dead reckoning computer, both standard equipment for bombardier/navigators; an airplane hoisting shackle used for shipping planes or loading them onto aircraft carriers; and a technical order for Bendix radios installed on B-25 aircraft. The artifacts are on loan from the Birmingham museum.

Best estimates are the flag expedition is one of the most covered by major global media in the history of the Explorers Club and one of the few followed in "real- time" by major news outlets such as CNN, UPI, Associated Press, Fox News, USA Today, Charlotte Observer , Washington Times, local affiliates of NBC, ABC, and CBS, plus a host of enthusiast publications such as Aviation News, Warbirds, Fly Past, German aviation media, and a coterie of local, state, and regional media, plus U.S. military publications. At its height, some 10 million viewers/readers daily followed the expedition globally and on the Internet.

Other Explorers Club members who participated in the plane's disassembly on the beach or supported the exhibit's opening include Dale Boozer, Stephen Cantrell, Janet Ciegler, Brian Helmuth, Jim Knight, Jon Leader, Warner Montgomery, Nena Powell Rice, Bruce Rippeteau, John Safko, and Steve Shaffer. Hodge's law firm, Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd P.A., and the Greater Piedmont Chapter of The Explorers Club were the major reception sponsors for the event.