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[David Schneider] It was November 9th, 1958.

A lone aircraft was flying above the Sahara Desert in Libya.

Immense oil reserves had been discovered in North Africa, changing the bleak, inhospitable Sahara from a place where no one wanted to be to a place of very high interest.

Aboard the plane was DArcy Oil Company geologist Ronald McLean, doing an aerial survey looking for rock formations that might give the indication of the presence of oil.

He spotted an airplane sitting on the desert floor that piqued the interest of the geologists, and had the pilot take a closer look.

They circled and found that the plane, although in pretty good shape, looked like it had suffered a hard landing.

The fuselage was broken and parts were strewn around.

To the geologist, it looked like a World War II bomber of some type, an American, because of its markings.

It was not uncommon to see military wreckage on the desert floor.

After all, many battles had occurred in that North African desert during World War II.

Anyone flying over the desert during that time would see scores of wrecked aircraft, tanks and other military equipment from Germany, Italy, Britain and the United States.

McLean, made a note of the discovery mark the airplane location on his chart, not with urgency as there was no sign of life and the war had been over for many years.

But as a landmark to use for future exploration.

Little did he know that this discovery would create a strange mystery that was to become famous worldwide, appearing in almost every U.S. and world newspaper and a continuing story that would last for the next two years.

I'm David Schneider.

Let's take a look at this amazing story of the desert mystery bomber and its Mid-Michigan connection.

Aerial survey was a first step in oil exploration of the bleak Sahara.

After viewing area reports, oil crews went out on ground tracks to study promising areas.

One such trip started out in February of 1959.

This particular group, made up of DArcy exploration group employees, had been told about the air team's discovery of an American bomber on the desert floor.

The plane was in their search area and they, being curious, decided to try and find it and do some exploration and pick up some souvenirs.

And sure enough, after searching, they spotted the plane at the distance, nestled in the sand.

As they approached closer, the bombers machine guns seemed to be eerily pointing at them, looking as if to challenge the team for the intrusion.

The closer the men got, the more intrigued they became.

The landing had been hard and the aircraft's back had broken, but it seemed to be in pretty good condition.

It was definitely a World War II bomber.

And from the U.S. apparently from the good condition it was in, it could have arrived there just a few months ago.

Wait, could it have ended up there during the war, out here in the desert, hundreds of miles from any military bases and undiscovered for all these years?

It was getting dark when they arrived at the site, and the men decided to wait until morning to explore the airplane.

If there were remains, it would be better to find them during the day.

The next morning it was strange, almost haunting, to look around the craft.

It was like the crew had stepped out for a walk.

The team entered the ship, found logbooks and personal items and other things lying around.

They searched further and found rations, canteens, still holding water, a coffee thermos with coffee that actually looked drinkable.

The machine gun still had ammunition belts.

The instruments and radio equipment looked operational.

It seemed like everything was there except for the crew.

The crew, the team wondered where they were at.

If they walked away, why didn't they take their survival gear with them?

They noticed there were no parachutes.

Why take the parachutes and leave everything else?

Was it possible the men bailed out and the airplane landed itself?

The oil team had to leave and get back to their mission.

They loaded up their souvenirs and as they drove away, they look back and shook their heads.

What a mystery!

It was spooky, almost crazy.

It was a mystery all right.

At the end of their expedition and arriving back at their headquarters, Gordon Bauman, one of the ground exploration crew, wondering and worrying about the fate of the crewmen, sent a letter to an acquaintance at the Wheelus Air Force base at Tripoli.

Gordon supplied the serial number of the mystery bomber, as well as the crew names and items that were found.

Wheeler started trying to get information, and after several days of moving around the military hierarchy, the request ended up at the Army Records Center in in St. Louis, Missouri.

At St. Louis, researchers found that B-24D, serial number 41-24301 and its nine man crew was reported missing on April 4th, 1943.

It was quite exciting for the records people to hear of the wreckage of a World War II Two aircraft being found so long after the war was over, and it got a lot of attention.

But wait, where was that airplane found?

Over 400 miles south of Benghazi, in the middle of the Sahara desert.

The report that we have says the aircraft disappeared over the Mediterranean Sea.

This was very, very odd.

The bomber was some 500 miles away from where it was reported lost.

It was decided that the military needed to do a deep dive investigation into this aircraft.

The information was sent to the U.S. Mortuary System in Frankfurt, Germany, which was tasked with the recovery, identification and transportation of deceased American military personnel and as a crew was never found, orders were sent in motion to find and recover the lost airmen and bring them home.

[SFX] Explosions [Franklin Delano Roosevelt] Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 A date which will live in infamy.

[David Schneider] December 7th, 1941 was a game changer for many United States citizens, especially if you were a young man fit for military duty.

The Japanese surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, drove the country into a war.

Although not totally unexpected, the U.S. was just not prepared for war as it should have been.

[John Ryder] After Pearl Harbor people across the country, men and women looking to, support our troops, went to recruiting stations around the country, especially here in Michigan.

Imagine the lines at recruiting stations in places like Flint in Saginaw in Cilo, Michigan, where these individuals, were very patriotic.

They wanted to get back at the aggressors in that conflict, and they wanted to do their part to protect the American homeland.

Harold Ripslinger of Saginaw was one who volunteered.

Rip, as his friends called him, was the youngest child of six and lived on Avon Street with his father Frank, and siblings James, Frank Jr. and sister Sister Mary Cecile.

His mother, Abby had passed away.

He had attended St. Andrews High School.

He was a popular and well-liked student and was a devout Catholic.

He was a star athlete, excelling in football and baseball.

On May 9th, 1938, in a baseball game against Arthur Hill, his two run triple powered his team to a 2-1 victory over the Hillite pitching ace Ed Albosta.

Harold joined the Army Air Forces and was chosen for training on a heavy bomber, the concentrated B-24 Liberator.

The B-24, as well as the Boeing B-17, were to be the main U.S. heavy bombers during the war.

[John Ryder] Like most everybody on the the planes, Harold was trained for two positions on the Lady Be Good.

And those positions were flight engineer.

The flight engineer's job would have been to, maintain the engines in flight, maintain all the systems in flight, be able to, figure out why the air pressure was dropping in one engine or be able to address any issues in flight.

Harold would have also been trained as a gunner, and be able to replace any gunners in flight.

[David Schneider] It was a big jump for Harold, but he did very well with his training.

By the end of 1942, a year after he enlisted, he was a noncommissioned officer had graduated from Aircraft Mechanic School as a flight engineer and aerial gunner school.

Being the devout Catholic he was, he had impressed his Catholic chaplain so much that the chaplain wanted Harold to stay on as a chaplain's assistant.

Harold declined as he was determined to do his part for the war effort.

The flight engineer is still an important aircraft position in today's Air Force.

[Nicholas Ranck] The duties of a flight engineer are to ensure the aircraft is safe for flight.

As a flight engineer, my job is to be the subject matter expert in every single system on that aircraft.

So everything from, the engine operation to hydraulic systems, landing gear, fuel systems.

Its my job to make sure that the aircraft is in a safe configuration for whatever phase of flight it's in.

Ensuring that the flaps are at the correct setting for takeoff, for approach, for approach speeds, and relaying all that information to the pilots to make sure that they are within the parameters, for safe operation for that aircraft.

[David Schneider] Rip met up with eight other airmen, First Lieutenant William J. Hatton, pilot; Second Lieutenant Robert F. Toner, co-pilot; Second Lieutenant DP Hays, navigator; Second Lieutenant John S. Woravaka, bombardier; S/Sgt Vernon L. Moore, gunner; T/Sgt Robert E. LaMotte, also from MI, radio operator; T/Sgt Guy E. Shelly, tail gunner; and S/Sgt Samuel R. Adams, gunner.

The men began training as a B-24 crew.

The nine men flew together and got to know each other, learning the respective jobs by training in too old for combat B24s.

Soon a brand new B-24D, which they named zipped, arrived for them, and after a long 12 day ferry flight via Florida, Puerto Rico, Guyana, West Africa and Cairo, Zip and its crew ended up at the Soluch Airfield south of Benghazi, Libya.

[Jimmy Page] B-24 was a, fairly early heavy bomber in the war, so it was unpressurized.

So the crews would have had to deal with cold weather and wear cold weather gear.

The airplane didn't have any, hydraulic boost or pneumatic boost on the controls.

So everything is very manual.

It's very heavy on the controls.

One of the interesting characteristics it has a Davis wing, and the Davis wing gave it better efficiency and maybe some better speed, but it also made it unstable in pitch.

So any time there was a CG change, whether it was a crew member moving from the nose to the after the aft nose, or even when they were dropping bombs, the airplane would go out of trim and that would require a lot of intervention by the crew, especially in pitch.

Heavy controls on aileron and rudder as well.

And so it's a very visceral, physical airplane to fly.

But it was also, kind of a pilot's airplane.

Once they were established at Soluch, unfortunately, Zip, the aircraft they had spent so much time in was dispatched to a more experienced crew, and a disappointed Harold and his crew were grounded.

with no airplane.

After about a week of sitting around, they were selected to fly on a large afternoon mission to bomb the harbor at Naples, Italy.

Although it was supposed to be a daytime raid because of getting off late, they would have to find their target and make their way back to the base after dark.

An airplane was available for them because the crew was stranded in Malta.

The airplane was named the Lady Be Good.

It was named after a popular Gershwin song from the 1941 movie the Lady Be Good.

Harold and his crew were green and raw.

Most of the Ladys new crew had never been in combat, and it was going to be a very difficult mission for a very inexperienced crew.

The Lady was the 21st of 25 bombers taking off for the mission that day.

The mission did not start well.

Bad luck struck when a sudden storm storm caused havoc with the planes were taking off, and many had to turn back because of engine trouble caused by the blowing sand.

The Lady had a successful takeoff and stayed with the formation, but was running late.

For various reasons, the target was not reached because of the late takeoff and strong winds, the mission was a bit of a mess.

[John Ryder] And as they start across the Mediterranean, they start having problems before they even get to Naples.

Many of those planes have to turn back.

In fact, when they get to Naples, Harold's plane, the Lady Be Good is in the lead.

And they're the lead of four planes that have made it that far.

[Jon Bozich] The mission started, it was actually a nighttime mission, which would be unusual for American crews.

American crews were never trained for nighttime missions.

So they were very nervous about that.

All their training was daylight.

[John Ryder] When they get to Naples, the Lady Be Good pilots, not convinced that he's going to be able to, identify the target properly.

And he's afraid of hitting civilians.

And so therefore, he there's a little bit of talk on the radios between him and the other planes of scuttling the mission.

And, there's a little bit of a push back on that, but all four planes decide to return After deciding to scuttle the mission, they jettisoned their bombs over the sea, and they continued back, and they jettisoned those bombs to save on weight and increase flight time.

[Jon Bozich] The return mission, after dropping their bombs, now they set a course.

They knew what the course was to get back to their base.

But again, this is completely in the dark, There's no visible, ground to see They assumed they were over, water most of the time, because they knew they had to fly across the Mediterranean, but they couldn't see it.

They had to rely entirely on the, pilots and navigator, keeping on the course.

For whatever reason, they couldn't tell exactly where their position was.

but with a tailwind they were actually flying further and faster than anticipated.

And there was no way, to look down and see a landmark to let them know that they've arrived at this particular area.

So, the expression is they were completely in the dark and they were.

Rip and his crew never made it back to Soluch.

The base launch search is over the Mediterranean, but came up with nothing.

The military had no choice but to declare the Lady and her crew missing in action.

After an investigation, it was assumed the Lady Be Good and her crew had gone down at the Mediterranean Sea.

Rip his crewmates first mission was their last.

The next of kin were notified the crew was missing in action.

After a time it was changed to presumed dead.

The case was closed.

[Nicholas Ranck] If a member of the Air Force were to go missing, it is generally, a responsibility of that individual's, specific leadership.

So their commander, their senior enlisted leader, more or less, maybe even a chaplain would show up to that family's home in their full service dress to let that family know.

[David Schneider] Mothers, fathers, spouses, sisters and brothers could and did speculate for years what might have happened to their loved one.

There would always be a feeling of emptiness in the family.

But it was not over for the crew of the Lady Be Goods next of kin.

16 years later, they were notified that the ghost bomber that was found in the desert in 1958 was identified as the Lady Be Good, which was supposed to have been lost over the Mediterranean Sea 500 miles to the north.

It must have been a shock to the Ripslingers and the other families that the Lady was found, especially since there was no sign of the crew.

It must have brought instant thoughts of could they still be alive?

The families, after 16 years of getting over their losses, were suddenly thrust into the world spotlight.

In late May of 1959, six months after the lady was discovered, a preliminary team from the U.S. Army Quartermaster Mortuary System landed at the crash site.

Their job was to do a survey of the wreck and try to figure out what had happened to the crew.

When they appraised the Lady, they found everything.

As the oil survey crew had described, the airplane had been literally suspended in time for 16 years.

the parachutes were missing.

The escape hatch and the bomb bay doors were open.

A sure sign the crew had parachuted.

Curiously, the Mae West life preservers were also missing.

Why would they be needed when bailing out over the desert?

After two days, the team left the site with more questions than answers.

It was decided by the military that the discovery of the Lady was a pretty big deal, and that answers were needed, and the crew found and brought home.

By June, the story of the Lady had become big news.

The names of the crew were released, and the press, as well as the families of Lady's men were demanding information.

The news of the desert mystery bomber became known worldwide.

It was huge.

Newspapers and news agencies from all over picked up the story.

The Ripslingers and other crew and families began to be bombarded with phone calls and knocks on their doors from the press.

The big question was what happened to these guys and where are they?

It took six weeks to organize and a ton of money to get started.

And in July, the Army Quartermaster Mortuary was back to the crash site to try and find the remains of the Ladys crew.

Air force personnel were assigned to help on the search.

They had ground vehicles manned by Libyans who were familiar with desert operations.

Helicopters were transported in and even high altitude reconnaissance jets were used.

It was a truly massive operation and it was constant front page news all over the U.S. and even foreign countries, it was a big deal.

Right away, the harsh conditions of the Sahara Desert convinced the search team it would be very difficult to survive on the desert.

Daytime, 100 degree plus temperatures and the freezing night temperatures would be difficult to overcome by humans with good supplies.

But a crew with very little food and water nobody gave them much of a chance.

This part of the desert was so harsh that the Bedouins avoided it.

Many birds adventured there would die as it was too hot to fly.

It barely ever rained.

A precise search plan was put in place, starting out, heading north with a wide search from where the Lady was found, it was obvious the crew never found the plane, but it was not known where they would have landed after jumping.

The search team found old vehicle tracks identified as wartime Italian, which they thought the crew might have followed.

And sure enough, they spotted a pair of flight boots 19 miles north of the crash site, pointing north.

The boots were a very significant find.

It was big, big news.

It showed at least some of the crew had survived the jump.

It also raised hope that remains could be found.

This caused another stir in the press and again a ray of hope to the crew's loved ones that a resolution might be near.

Newspapers including the Saginaw News did updates every time new evidence was found.

Parachute markers were found that had to have come from the crew, forming arrows, which they laid out to show the direction that they were heading.

The desert where the Lady lay was a gravel plane, relatively easy to navigate.

As the searchers traveled north, They ran into the shifting sands of the Sand Sea, where the high dunes were much harder to traverse.

After months of looking, the search team was exhausted.

Their equipment was breaking down.

The excruciating daytime heat and cold nights of the desert had taken its toll.

The military survival expert said, look, these guys had only water that they would have had in their canteens.

No supplies, no survival equipment.

It's amazing they made it this far.

And once they got into the shifting sands, their bodies would have been covered up.

It's highly, highly unlikely they will ever be found.

After two months, the search was ended.

Thousands of square miles of desert had been searched.

The military really did go all out in the search.

It was a valiant effort.

No expense was spared.

The official statement was, quote.

The search was abandoned when equipment began to deteriorate and fail, and the probability of the airmen being completely covered by shifting sand made the dangers of further search impractical.

Unquote.

Again, case closed.

And again, after some hope, no closure for the Ripslingers and the other families, Time passed, the news coverage began to die down.

The remains of the ladys crew were assumed to be lost and buried forever in the shifting sands of the Sahara.

The families of the crew had to accept again, and like so many other MIA families from the war, they would never know the final fate of their loved ones.

In early February of 1960, CBS Television's Armstrong Circle Theater did a documentary trying to explain why the crew would never be found in the shifting sands of the desert.

But a big question remained, how had the bomber after flying back from its mission at Italy, overflown its base and Soluch by over 400 miles, this was still a mystery.

On February 12th, 1960 six months after the search for the Lady's crew was abandoned, and just a few days after the Armstrong Circle Theater was aired, there was more big, big news.

The Willis Air Base received a message from a water drilling team, contracted to the DArcy exploration Group.

It stated that they had found human remains at 26 degrees, 54 minutes north and 24 degrees eight minutes east.

The location was right on the edge of the Sand Sea.

The drilling team believed the bodies came from the Lady Be Good.

The military went to the site arriving February 17th, 1960.

They found five bodies closely grouped in a small area with canteens, flashlights, and personal items.

Some of the items had names on them.

The scene greatly saddened the men, and they treated the area with great reverence.

They moved around carefully so as not to disturb anything.

The five men were tentatively identified as Lieutenant Hatten, Lieutenant Hays, Sergeant Adams, Sergeant LaMotte and Lieutenant Toner.

But they did find a diary, it belonged to co-pilot Robert Toner.

Would there finally be answers?

Sunday, April 4th, 1943.

Naples 28 planes.

Things pretty well mixed up- Got lost returning, out of gas, Jumped.

Landed in desert at 2:00 in the morning.

No one badly hurt, can't find John, all others present.

Monday five.

Start walking N.W., still no John.

A few rations, half a canteen of water, one capful per day.

Sun fairly warm.

Good breeze from N.W.

Nite very cold.

no sleep.

Rested and walked.

Tuesday, six.

Rested at 1130, Sun very warm, no breeze, spent p.m. in hell, no planes, etc.

Rested until 5:00 pm.

walked and rested all nite, 15 min.

on 5 off.

Wednesday, April 7th, 1943.

Same routine, everyone getting weak, can't get very far, prayers all the time, again P.M. very warm, Hell can't sleep.

Everyone sore from ground.

Thursday eight.

Hits sand dunes, very miserable, good wind but continuous blowing of sand, everybody now very weak, Lamont's eyes are gone, everyone else's eyes are bad.

Still going N.W.

Friday, nine.

Shelly, Rip and Moore separate and try to go for help, rest of us all very weak, eyes bad.

Not any travel, all want to die, still very little water.

Nites are about 35, good N. wind, no shelter, 1 parachute left.

Saturday, April 10th, 1943.

Still having prayer meetings for help.

No signs of anything, a couple of birds; good wind from N. Really weak now, can't walk, pains all over, still all want to die.

Nite's very cold, no sleep.

Sunday eleven.

Still waiting for help, still praying, eyes bad, lost all our wgt.

Aching all over, could make it if we had water, just enough left to put our tongue to, to have hope for help very soon, no rest, still same place.

Monday, twelve.

No help yet, very cold nite.

Lieutenant Toners diary did answer some questions.

John Woravka, the bombardier, never made the meetup.

Moore, Shelly and Ripslinger had left the group to seek help.

That left four unaccounted for.

The military searchers were determined to find and bring home the rest of the missing men.

Another search started soon after.

This was to be another huge operation.

Specially equipped desert trucks, helicopters, transport planes, more jet recon aircraft, as well as many soldiers and airmen gathered to take part in what was to be called Operation Climax.

The searchers set up grids that covered 50 miles northwest of where the five were found, right on the shifting dunes of the Sand Sea.

Problems plagued the search from the beginning.

the harsh Sahara was not only excruciatingly hot during the day and freezing cold at night, it had sandstorms sweeping the dunes and creating havoc.

The storms would last for days, halting the search.

The team lost a week trying to find two searchers that got themselves lost.

Then on May 12th, a message from a British Petroleum team laying out a pipeline.

The message said they had found human remains.

They thought it was another crew member from the Lady.

The next day, the military searchers reached the find.

The remains had been scattered from the wind and shifting sand.

They were tentatively identified as Guy Shelly, one of the three who left the main group.

Amazingly, Guy had traveled another 37 miles from where the first five were located.

Guy's wallet was found in his trousers, along with Harold Ripslingers wallet.

It was thought that Harold had collapsed somewhere before, where Shelly had fallen.

And Shelly had taken the wallet for Harold's next of kin.

The search resumed, and four days later, Harold's body was found by a military search helicopter.

Ironically, Harold Ripslinger was the first Lady Be Good crew member to be found by the military and not by an oil team.

He laid intact, curled into a semi-fetal posture, and had most likely expired during the cold desert night.

He was found May 17th, 1960, a little over 17 years from when he started his trek across the desert and two years after the Lady Be Good was discovered.

On June 17th, a telephoned message from the Secretary of the Army notified his family that Technical Sergeant Harold J. Ripslinger had been found and identified and would be coming home.

Finally, the Ripslinger family had closure.

Harold had also kept a diary, his like Lieutenant Toners showed as the days went by, how optimism turned into resignation.

On Sunday, Harold wrote.

Mission to Naples, Italy.

T.O.

3:10 and drop bombs at 10:00.

Lost coming back.

Bailed out at 2:10 A.M. on desert.

Thursday.

Tired all out.

We can hardly walk.

Our fourth day out.

A few drops of water each.

Can't hold out much longer without aid.

Prayed Friday, Fifth day out and we're all thought were gone.

All want to die during noon, it was so hot.

Morning and night okay.

Two drops of water.

Saturday.

Walked all day and night.

Suggested Guy, Moore & I make it out alone.

Sunday, Palm Sunday, still struggling to get out of the dunes and find water.

[David Schneider] Harold was off by a week.

Palm Sunday was to be the next Sunday.

Harold's funeral was July 23rd, 1960 at St. Andrew's Church in Saginaw.

He was buried at nearby St. Andrews Cemetery.

Seven of the nine crew members were now accounted for and all taken back to the U.S. for burial.

All except DP Hays were buried in cemeteries close to their hometowns.

DP was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Only John Woravka and Vernon Moore were still out in the desert.

the search team made a statement that basically said The area where the men could have been was thoroughly searched, and that the missing remains had been covered by sand so as to escape detection.

Operation climax was terminated and again it was Lady Be Good case closed.

Or was it?

Less than three months later, on August 11th, 1960, Wheelus Air Base was notified that a British Petroleum Exploration party had come across another body, likely another crew member, just 12 miles northeast of the Lady's crash site.

Right away, a recovery crew was dispatched from Wheelus The body was laying on its back, still fully clothed, in high altitude flight gear, and was identified as the missing bombardier, John Woravka.

It was obvious that his parachute hadn't opened correctly and he was killed on impact.

Woravka had never made it to the meet up.

His quick death saved him from the desert hell his crew mates endured.

The rally point of the bailed out crew was found soon after, just 4/10 of a mile from Woravka.

Boots, high altitude pants and jackets and life preservers were found there, along with used signal pistol cartridges that the crew used to try and signal Lieutenant.

Woravka.

This pretty much summed up what was left to find out from the mystery bomber.

With the exception of Vernon Moore, his body was never found.

It was thought the remains found ten years earlier by a group of British soldiers on a training mission might have been Moore, but it could not be proven.

Finding the crew rally point showed what the crew had accomplished.

At the beginning of the search, the survival expert said it was impossible for the crew to go more than 20 to 25 miles.

Amazingly, the first five were found almost 73 miles from the rally point.

Ripslinger when 104 Miles and Shelly traveled an astonishing 115 miles.

This at one of the harshest places on the planet, with six capitals of water and virtually no food.

But what about the big mystery?

How did the lady end up over 400 miles past her base?

Over the years, this has been enthusiastically debated.

The navigator, Lieutenant DP Hays, took most of the blame, but it was probably a combination of things.

A very green crew thrust into a situation they had never experienced before, a strong tailwind they weren't aware of, a very dark night that made it impossible to see what was beneath them.

Fatigue from a very long day, the threat of being attacked by German night fighters, and of course, just plain bad luck.

But what about the Lady Be Good?

She languished on the desert, being stripped and vandalized by souvenir hunters until 1994, when the Libyans transported her back to Tobruk, Libya, where it is assumed she still is.

Numerous parts for the Lady Be Good were returned to the U.S. for technical study.

Other items went to the National Museum of the United States Air Force, the Air Force Academy, and the Army Quartermaster Museum.

A propeller is displayed along with a monument in front of the village hall in Lake Linden, Michigan, the home of Robert LaMotte.. Also, some parts were installed and other aircraft which then experienced unexpected difficulties.

This came to be known as the curse of the Lady Be Good.

A C-54, in which several auto sin transmitters were installed, had propeller trouble, and made a safe landing only by throwing cargo overboard.

A C-47, in which a radio for the Lady was installed had a harrowing experience ditching in the Mediterranean and a U.S. Army Otter airplane in which a seat armrest from the Lady was installed crashed in the Gulf of Sidra with ten men aboard.

No trace was ever found of any of them or the airplane.

One of the few pieces washed ashore was the armrest from the Lady Be Good.

The Lady's crew had known how far deep in the desert they actually were.

They may have thought that the course was just over the next dune, and that was one of the things that kept them going.

Military and civilian survival experts were totally amazed at what the latest crew accomplished.

Survival guides and training manuals were literally rewritten because of their story.

The experts were also greatly impressed by the discipline and adherence to training the men had shown.

The sheer determination of the men to make it out of the desert became a huge training point in modern survival guides.

The Ladys crew was a group of enthusiastic young men who wanted to do well on their very first combat mission.

They never expected it to end the way it did, But the well-used phrase they didn't die in vain is never truer than in the story of the men of the Lady Be Good.

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