stewart73
Forum Supporter
What and awesome story. 
Still can't believe it! Pure Shock *Update*
- Thread starter Kolby72
- Start date
Those last group of pictures you posted are awesome!! Couldn't have been better for Memorial Day!
NOTE: That Stars & Stripes video is GREAT!! You guys did our hobby proud!!!!
NOTE: That Stars & Stripes video is GREAT!! You guys did our hobby proud!!!!
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drsilver
Full Member
What a great thread. Got goosebumps after seeing the pictures of the bombers. Truly the greatest generation!
Kolby72
Forum Supporter
Hey guys I am not sure who all is still following this story anymore, but I got an E-Mail from JPAC saying that they have the remains in their possesion and are giong to be running some test to see if they can get a DNA match. I never thought it would take this long to have the remains looked at but I guess that these types of things take time. On another note the guy that e-mailed me asked if me and my buddies would come out to a crash site from WWII near the Air Base to help them detect the area and look for human remains. Of course I am not in Germany anymore but some of my detecting buddies did go and they said that the Archies treated them with a ton of respect. I guess they got word that we found the remains and the other crash site so it gave our group a bit of respect and credibility... they are going to be inviting us to help out more often. Which is a huge honor and a win for everyone that enjoys our hobby!
Dark Chameleon
Elite Member
Good to hear.....im hoping you dont find anyone but if you do that its someone who had been missed and can now settle.
Dont know what id do if i found something like that....i know it took more then a month and a half for them to dna test my mom and obviously she hadnt been dead for 60 years so it can take time.
Detecting in places where so many died must bring forward the chances of finding peope, there are so many mia's around the world that detecting can find so many people.
I'd love to detect on a battle zone but hopefully for more relics then remains
Dont know what id do if i found something like that....i know it took more then a month and a half for them to dna test my mom and obviously she hadnt been dead for 60 years so it can take time.
Detecting in places where so many died must bring forward the chances of finding peope, there are so many mia's around the world that detecting can find so many people.
I'd love to detect on a battle zone but hopefully for more relics then remains
The Rebel
Forum Supporter
sweet!
redsman
Full Member
This was the best thread I have read on here. So cool that you guys found the site. The men of that era were true heros. I know a WWII veteran and can't get enough stories from him. Man I'm so glad I looked up necklace in the search bar. LOL Yes that's how I found this thread.
Kolby72
Forum Supporter
The word necklace brought you here!? haha well im glad you got to see this thread. It is the once in a lifetime find I am 100% sure I can never top it.
Kolby72
Forum Supporter
Hey guys I know it seems like ages since I gave yall an update. Well I was contacted by a guy who's great uncle died on "Our Baby" and he shared some cool pictures with me that I will post over the next couple of days. I contacted JPAC and asked if anything new had come up with the case. They let me know that they are looking at the remains and are trying to get an idea of who the person is. Also they informer me that they cannot give me any more updates since I am not a family member of any of the crews. I am disheartened by this because I have grown close to the men on both planes and their families. But that is not the worst news...the worst news came a month ago when the Government said "they most likely would not be digging up the site, since it was already looked at in the 40's and all of the bodies were recovered" that sounds pretty crazy to me because we are still finding bones at the site!? I am going to have he families start contacting JPAC every month asking for an update. It does not sit well with me that we are finding bones of American heroes in the woods of Germany and our government is shrugging it off....maybe I will start a petition? I will fill you guys in soon! and I will post some pics as well!
Thanks for the update Kolby! I think it is an awesome thing you did and are continuing to try to bring these men home!! 
The Rebel
Forum Supporter
Thanks for the update as well. I'm surprised that they are still holding to the report from the 40's when you've brought new evidence to light.
Hi Kolby72,
Sadly this is not unusual as I've had similar instances when human remains, albeit very fragmentary, have been found on crash sites. The "clincher" here is that as far as the Government etc are concerned, there were sufficient remains and associated material present in the original recovery to say, without doubt that these men had been accounted for.
This will not stop bones from appearing and it is always the right thing to report these, to get the wheels turning. I sincerely hope that these "new remains" will be identified and then there is an opportunity for the family to inter these at the marked graves. And not for them to be "deposited in storage" somewhere.
Kind regards,
Simon.
njal
Forum Supporter
Kolby thanks for the update.Looking forward to seeing
the pictures.
the pictures.
Sonny b
Elite Member
Thanks for the update Kolby.
Kolby72
Forum Supporter
Oddly enough, my Grandfather was a B-24 bombardier who was in the ETO during 1943/1944. So after a little searching through all the mission records i managed to gather in recent years.... it turns out he was in the same Bomb group, the 392nd. That's just the tip of the iceberg though. It turns out that my grandfather's B24 flew many of the same missions that "Our Baby", INCLUDING mission #31 on Feb. 2, 1944 Target: NoBall-Watten, France.... where the crew who were recently discovered met their tragic deaths. 
On the following mission, my Grandfathers B24 got shot all up right after dropping their payload of bombs on Friedrichshafen. They managed to get the plane out of German airspace just in time to crash land in Switzerland. Everyone survived... my grandfather was awarded the Silver Star, a purple heart, and a few months later, a boat ride back to NYC.
And in another turn of events, while looking into these events, I found the grandson of the co-pilot of the B24 my grandfather served on. lol.
it truly is a small world.
Ok.. time to get back to researching what first metal detector i should get.
On the following mission, my Grandfathers B24 got shot all up right after dropping their payload of bombs on Friedrichshafen. They managed to get the plane out of German airspace just in time to crash land in Switzerland. Everyone survived... my grandfather was awarded the Silver Star, a purple heart, and a few months later, a boat ride back to NYC.
And in another turn of events, while looking into these events, I found the grandson of the co-pilot of the B24 my grandfather served on. lol.
it truly is a small world.
Ok.. time to get back to researching what first metal detector i should get.
DirtyNeckJesse
Elite Member
Awesome story!
SageGrouse
Elite Member
Thank you for doing what you are doing.
In Monett Missouri, in the old IOOF cemetery, there is a grave. On the stone it reads RAY LEON JAQUES" with his birth and death dates.
It is the grave of my great uncle.
It is empty.
RaY L Jaques lied about his age to get into the Navy during WW II because he was so eager to get over there and serve. My only memory of Ray is the pictures of him that hung on my great frandparents' wall. The bright young man smiling, resplendant in his fresh, creased Navy uniform, with the flag behind him. That and the Purple Heart, which I still have.
Ray was a crewmember on the USS Lexington. During the Battle of the Coral Sea, Mya 7-8 1941 the "Lady Lex" was hit by enemy torpedoes. A fire started on the ship, was put out, and then an explosion hit, causing further fire and crippling the carrier. Then a wave of massive explosions and fires. The order to abandon ship came and the surviving crewmembers were taken off safely.
Ray was not among them. From what we were told, he had been in the radio room when the second explosion hit.
Here is where fact and legend separate and walk two different paths. Some say that there were living crewmembers left aboard the Lex because they could NOT be gotten off the ship. Other accounts say that everyone who could be gotten off, were.
I know that the latter detail is correct. The US was forced to scuttle the Gray Lady to keep her from falling into the hands of the Japanese. Lexington would have been and incredible war prize.
Legend has it that the day was darkening into night when the commander of one of the Phelps ship radioed the Lexington to tell them "Boys... I hate like H--- to do this... but we're gonna have to scuttle you. We can't wait any longer, the Japanese fleet is on top of us!"
A voice came back amid the static "Well, Cap'n... make it a good one! We got one heck of a card game going on here and I'm ahead!"
This is what the Jaques family was told by a survivor who visited them. We now know that it is not what happened. ... ?...
They sent two torpedoes into the Lexington and she began to list, and then to sink. She went clean.
In the newspapers, there was a brief mention of "The Wasp" having been sunk on the Coral Sea. News was patchy and garbled in order to keep the Japanese from knowing what a huge prize they had damaged. It was felt also that morale in the States would be dampened by knowing that one of the greatest ships then afloat had been sunk.
They held services for the fallen. I have, today, Presidential citations from that time, and also one from Lyndon B. Johnson on the 25th anniversary of the sinking. I have the newspaper clippings and I have Uncle Ray's Purple Heart and service medals. I've seen the gravestone. but the entire family knows. It's empty. They could not rescue the bodies of those lost.
Footage of the battle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iipW_576Ea0
So... from a family member of a casualty of World War II ...
THANK YOU.
SageGrouse
In Monett Missouri, in the old IOOF cemetery, there is a grave. On the stone it reads RAY LEON JAQUES" with his birth and death dates.
It is the grave of my great uncle.
It is empty.
RaY L Jaques lied about his age to get into the Navy during WW II because he was so eager to get over there and serve. My only memory of Ray is the pictures of him that hung on my great frandparents' wall. The bright young man smiling, resplendant in his fresh, creased Navy uniform, with the flag behind him. That and the Purple Heart, which I still have.
Ray was a crewmember on the USS Lexington. During the Battle of the Coral Sea, Mya 7-8 1941 the "Lady Lex" was hit by enemy torpedoes. A fire started on the ship, was put out, and then an explosion hit, causing further fire and crippling the carrier. Then a wave of massive explosions and fires. The order to abandon ship came and the surviving crewmembers were taken off safely.
Ray was not among them. From what we were told, he had been in the radio room when the second explosion hit.
Here is where fact and legend separate and walk two different paths. Some say that there were living crewmembers left aboard the Lex because they could NOT be gotten off the ship. Other accounts say that everyone who could be gotten off, were.
I know that the latter detail is correct. The US was forced to scuttle the Gray Lady to keep her from falling into the hands of the Japanese. Lexington would have been and incredible war prize.
Legend has it that the day was darkening into night when the commander of one of the Phelps ship radioed the Lexington to tell them "Boys... I hate like H--- to do this... but we're gonna have to scuttle you. We can't wait any longer, the Japanese fleet is on top of us!"
A voice came back amid the static "Well, Cap'n... make it a good one! We got one heck of a card game going on here and I'm ahead!"
This is what the Jaques family was told by a survivor who visited them. We now know that it is not what happened. ... ?...
They sent two torpedoes into the Lexington and she began to list, and then to sink. She went clean.
In the newspapers, there was a brief mention of "The Wasp" having been sunk on the Coral Sea. News was patchy and garbled in order to keep the Japanese from knowing what a huge prize they had damaged. It was felt also that morale in the States would be dampened by knowing that one of the greatest ships then afloat had been sunk.
They held services for the fallen. I have, today, Presidential citations from that time, and also one from Lyndon B. Johnson on the 25th anniversary of the sinking. I have the newspaper clippings and I have Uncle Ray's Purple Heart and service medals. I've seen the gravestone. but the entire family knows. It's empty. They could not rescue the bodies of those lost.
Footage of the battle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iipW_576Ea0
So... from a family member of a casualty of World War II ...
THANK YOU.
SageGrouse
