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History Channel visits Hill Aerospace Museum

  • Published
  • By Mitch Shaw
  • 75th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah --  The History Channel's cameras were rolling at the Hill Aerospace Museum in March in support of an upcoming documentary on World War II aircraft recovery operations.

The segment filmed at the museum focused on the 1995 recovery mission of a B-24 Liberator that crash landed in Alaska's Aleutian Islands on Jan. 18, 1943. The documentary is scheduled to air sometime in late spring on the "Mega Movers" show.

Historical records indicate the B-24 had been dispatched to Adak Island, Alaska, to assist American air, sea, and ground forces in halting the Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands.

While returning home on an aborted mission to bomb supply ships on Japanese-held Kiska Island, severe weather forced the crew to crash land on Great Sitkin Island.

Capt. Ernie Pruitt and his 8-man crew all survived the crash, but the war was over for the fallen plane. For the next 50 years, it remained in the exact same place it had crashed.

In 1994, it was located by a scouting party from the Aerospace Heritage Foundation of Utah and the recovery expedition took place in the summer of 1995.

"In '94 we looked at two different B-24 crash sites," said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Mark Reynolds, chair of the Aerospace Heritage Foundation, who participated in the recovery of the plane. "The other site was on an island about 30 miles south of Adak. The plane there was probably in better shape than the one we eventually recovered, but we knew it was going to be a lot harder to get to, so we decided to go for the one on Great Sitkin."

When General Reynolds arrived at the crash site with the rest of the recovery team, which included members of Hill's 419th Combat Logistics Support Squadron, he was surprised at the condition of the plane.

"For a crash landing it was in pretty good shape," he said. "Most crash landings leave the plane completely destroyed."

After the team found the plane, the aircraft and all its pieces were loaded onto a cargo ship and taken to Adak Island. It was then airlifted back to the museum for complete restoration, which took approximately 10 years to complete

"I feel a lot of pride when I look at this plane and see all the hard work that has gone into bringing back it here," said Paul Cragun, a retired Air Force reservist, who also participated in the recovery of the Liberator. "It took a lot of hard work from a lot of people and I'm proud I can say I was part of that."

Mr. Cragun said the most exciting part of the recovery was seeing the face of Captain Pruitt, the pilot who had successfully crash-landed the plane more than 50 years earlier and come back with the recovery team to revisit the site.

"When we got Ernie up to the crash site, it was very interesting to see the expression on his face," Mr. Cragun said. "You could see that he was reliving the crash all over again."