WWII USCG Air Crew Recovery: Greenland

WWII Airmen Recovery: Greenland

Lt. John Pritchard (USCG), RM1/C Benjamin Bottoms and Corporal Loren Howarth crashed on the Greenland ice sheet during a November 29th, 1942 WWII rescue mission.   Help us bring them home.

Lt. Pritchard with RM1/c Benjamin Bottoms, had just completed a daring pontoon landing on a moving glacier to rescue Corporal Howarth from a downed B-17 Flying Fortress.  As Pritchard guided his aircraft back to the USCG Cutter Northland, his plane entered a whiteout.  Within nine minutes of takeoff, unable to orient himself to fly down the open fjord, the airplane flew into the ice sheet rising above the Køge Bugt Greenland’s eastern shore.

The crewmen lie buried within their WWII aircraft, up to 60-feet below the surface of the Greenland ice sheet, in one the most remote and inhospitable places on the earth.

After 77 years, 96-year-old, Nancy Pritchard, still awaits her brother's return from WWII.

Based upon newly discovered, corroborated and compelling evidence, the Fallen American Veterans Foundation (FAVF) will return to the east coast of Greenland to search a specific area for evidence of the men within aircraft.

The Fallen American Veterans Foundation (FAVF) can only execute this specific search during the period the last week of August through the third week of September.  The four-person FAVF glacier team includes expert Greenland glaciologists.

Our $85,000 goal will cover the cost of equipment, supplies, and personnel for this two-week search and recovery.  We have received a commitment from the Royal Danish Ministry of Defense for mission air & sea support.

Funds will be deposited directly into the Pritchard, Bottoms and Howarth Search & Recovery Fund, an account of the Fallen American Veterans Foundation, Inc.

Since WWII 83,000 US Military Personnel remain Missing In Action (MIA).  Together we can reduce this count by three.

The Fallen American Veterans Foundation, Inc. is a Rockport, Maine 501c3 nonprofit co-founded with families of US Military Personnel Missing in Action (MIA).  We honor the promise of leave no man behind through the investigation, search and recovery of those "who have given this country the fullest measure of their devotion" while providing their families with the closure they deserve.

The Fallen American Veterans Foundation is an expert in the planning, and logistics, and execution of difficult glacier search & recovery.

Nearly 100 US WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the Cold War service members in some of the most remote and inhospitable regions of Greenland, Antarctica, and Alaska.

For more information visit the Fallen American Veterans Foundation, Inc.  website www.favf.us

The Fallen American Veterans Foundation, Inc. has been awarded the Guidestar Platinum Seal for Transparency.

Let's Bring them Home!