Lost in Shangri-la : a true story of survival, adventure, and the most incredible rescue mission of World War II

Amazon.com Review Lost in Shangri-La , Mitchell Zuckoffs remarkable and inspiring narrative. Faced with the potential brutality of the Dani tribe, known throughout the valley for its violence, the trios lives were dependent on an unprecedented rescue mission--a dedicated group of paratroopers jumped into the jungle to provide aid and medical care, consequently leaving the survivors and paratroopers alike trapped on the jungle floor. A perilous rescue by plane became their only possible route to freedom. A riveting story of deliverance under the most unlikely circumstances, Lost in Shangri-La deserves its place among the great survival stories of World War II. --Lynette Mong Amazon Exclusive: Hampton Sides Reviews Lost in Shangri-La Outside magazine and the author of the international bestseller __, which won the 2002 PEN USA Award for nonfiction and the 2002 Discover Award from Barnes & Noble, and also served as the basis for the 2005 Miramax film The Great Raid . Although World War II was the greatest conflict in the history of this planet, many a jaded reader has come to the reluctant conclusion that there arent any more World War II stories left to tell. At least not good onesnot tales of the ripping good yarn variety. Yet remarkably, in his new book Lost in Shangri-La , Mitchell Zuckoff has found one, and hes told it with reportorial verve, narrative skill, and exquisite pacing. What makes this World War II story all the more fascinating is that it isnt really a war storynot in a strict military sense. Its more of an exotic adventure tale with rich anthropological shadings. In 1945, near the end of the war, an American plane crashes in a hidden jungle valley in New Guinea inhabited by Stone Age cannibals. 21 Americans die in the crash, but three injured survivors soon find themselves stumbling through the jungle without food, nursing terrible wounds and trying to elude Japanese snipers known to be holding out in the mountains. The first contact between the three Americans and the valleys Dani tribesmen is both poignant and comical. The Americans, Zuckoff writes, have crash-landed in a world that time didnt forget. Time never knew it existed. The tribesmen, who have never encountered metal and have yet to master the concept of the wheel, think the American interlopers are white spirits whove descended on a vine from heaven, fulfilling an ancient legend. Theyre puzzled and fascinated by the layers of removable skin in which these alien visitors are wrapped; the natives, who smear their bodies in pig grease and cover their genitals with gourds, have never seen clothes before. The Americans, in turn, are pretty sure their boartusk-bestudded hosts want to skewer them for dinner. What ensues in Zuckoffs fine telling is not so much a cultural collision as a pleasing and sometimes hilarious mutual unraveling of assumptions. Though the differences in the two societies are chasmic, the Americans and the Dani becomein a guarded, tentative sort of way_friends_. But when armed American airmen arrive via parachute to rescue the survivors, relations become more tense. The Americans make their camp right in the middle of a no-mans land between warring Dani tribesa no-mans land where for centuries they have fought the battles that are central to their daily culture. Here, Zuckoff notes, the ironies are profoundly rich. The Dani, untouched by and indeed utterly unaware of the great war thats been raging all across the globe, become thoroughly discombobulated when their own war is temporarily disrupted. Yes, there are still a few good World War II stories left to tell. And yes, this one meets all the requirements of a ripping good yarn. Zuckoff, who teaches journalism at Boston University, is a first-rate reporter who has spared no expense to rescue this tale from obscurity. His story has it all: Tragedy, survival, comedy, an incredibly dangerous eleventh-hour rescue, and an immensely attractive heroine to boot. Its extraordinary that Hollywood hasnt already taken this tale and run wild with it. If it did, the resulting movie would be equal parts Alive , Cast Away , and The Gods Must Be Crazy . Its as though the Americans have arrived in the Stone Age through a wormhole in the space-time continuum. The Dani dont know what to do with themselvesand life, as any of us know it, will never be the same. Review Zuckoff transforms impressive research into a deft narrative that brings the saga of the survivors to life. (Publishers Weekly (starred review) ) Zuckoff delivers a remarkable survival story. . . . In this well-crafted book, Zuckoff turns the long-forgotten episode into an unusually exciting narrative. . . . Polished, fast-paced and immensely readableready for the big screen. (Kirkus Reviews (starred review) ) [An] engaging story. . . . This excellent book will be enjoyed by anyone who loves true adventure stories. (Library Journal (starred review) ) This is an absorbing adventure right out of the Saturday-morning serials. . . . LOST IN SHANGRI-LA deserves a spot on the shelf of Greatest Generation nonfiction. It puts the reader smack into the jungle. (Cleveland Plain Dealer ) [A] gripplingly cinematic account. . . . A remarkable cast of characters. . . . A (Entertainment Weekly )

Chapter One

M I S S I N G
On a rainy day in May 1945, a Western Union messenger made
his rounds through the quiet village of Owego, in upstate New
York. Just outside downtown, he turned onto McMaster Street, a
row of modest, well-kept homes shaded by sturdy elm trees. He
slowed to a stop at a green, farm-style house with a small porch
and empty flower boxes. As he approached the door, the messenger
prepared for the hardest part of his job: delivering a telegram
from the U.S. War Department.
Directly before him, proudly displayed in a front window,
hung a small white banner with a red border and a blue star at its
center. Similar banners hung in windows all through the village,
each one to honor a young man, or in a few cases a young woman,
gone to war. American troops had been fighting in World War II
since 1941, and some blue-star banners had already been replaced
by banners with gold stars, signifying a loss for a larger gain and a
permanently empty place at a family’s dinner table.
Inside the blue-star home where the messenger stood was
Patrick Hastings, a sixty-eight-year-old widower. With his wire rim
glasses, his neatly trimmed silver hair, and the serious set of his
mouth, Patrick Hastings bore a striking resemblance to the new
president, Harry S. Truman, who’d taken office a month earlier
upon the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
A son of Irish immigrants, Patrick Hastings grew up a farm
boy across the border in Pennsylvania. After a long engagement,
he married his sweetheart, schoolteacher Julia Hickey, and they’d
moved to Owego to find work and raise a family. As the years
passed, Patrick rose through the maintenance department at a
local factory owned by the Endicott-Johnson Shoe Company, which
churned out combat boots and officers’ dress shoes for the U.S.
Army. Together with Julia, he reared three bright, lively daughters.
Now, though, Patrick Hastings lived alone. Six years earlier, a
fatal infection had struck Julia’s heart. Their home’s barren flower
boxes were visible signs of her absence and his solitary life.
Their two younger daughters, Catherine and Rita, had
married and moved away. Blue-star banners hung in their homes, too,
each one for a husband in the service. But the blue-star banner in
Patrick Hastings’s window wasn’t for either of his sons-in-law. It
honored his strong-willed eldest
daughter, Corporal Margaret
Hastings of the Women’s Army
Corps, the WACs.
Sixteen months earlier, in
January 1944, Margaret Hastings
had walked into a recruiting
station in the nearby city of
Binghamton. There, she signed
her name and took her place
among the first generation of
women to serve in the U.S.
military. Margaret and thousands
of other WACs were dispatched
to war zones around the world,
mostly filling desk jobs on bases
well back from the front lines.
Still, her father worried, knowing
that Margaret was in a strange, faraway land: New Guinea,
an untamed island just north of Australia. Margaret was based
at a U.S. military compound on the island’s eastern half, an area
known as Dutch New Guinea.
By the middle of 1945, the military had outsourced the delivery
of bad news, and its bearers had been busy: the combat death
toll among Americans neared 300,000. More than a 100,000 other
Americans had died noncombat deaths. More than 600,000 had
been wounded. Blue-star families had good reason to dread the
sight of a Western Union messenger approaching the door.
On this day, misery had company. As the messenger rang
Patrick Hastings’s doorbell, Western Union couriers with nearly
identical telegrams were en route to twenty-three other star-banner
homes with loved ones in Dutch New Guinea. The messengers
fanned out across the country, to rural communities including
Shippenville, Pennsylvania; Trenton, Missouri; and Kelso,
Washington, and to urban centers including New York, Philadelphia,
and Los Angeles.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff Copyright © 2011 by Mitchell Zuckoff. Excerpted by permission of HarperCollins. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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On May 13, 1945, twenty-four American servicemen and WACs boarded a transport plane for a sightseeing trip over “Shangri-La,” a beautiful and mysterious valley deep within the jungle-covered mountains of Dutch New Guinea. Unlike the peaceful Tibetan monks of James Hilton’s bestselling novel Lost Horizon, this Shangri-La was home to spear-carrying tribesmen, warriors rumored to be cannibals.

But the pleasure tour became an unforgettable battle for survival when the plane crashed. Miraculously, three passengers pulled through. Margaret Hastings, barefoot and burned, had no choice but to wear her dead best friend’s shoes. John McCollom, grieving the death of his twin brother also aboard the plane, masked his grief with stoicism. Kenneth Decker, too, was severely burned and suffered a gaping head wound.

Emotionally devastated, badly injured, and vulnerable to the hidden dangers of the jungle, the trio faced certain death unless they left the crash site. Caught between man-eating headhunters and enemy Japanese, the wounded passengers endured a harrowing hike down the mountainside—a journey into the unknown that would lead them straight into a primitive tribe of superstitious natives who had never before seen a white man—or woman.

Drawn from interviews, declassified U.S. Army documents, personal photos and mementos, a survivor’s diary, a rescuer’s journal, and original film footage, Lost in Shangri-La recounts this incredible true-life adventure for the first time. Mitchell Zuckoff reveals how the determined trio—dehydrated, sick, and in pain—traversed the dense jungle to find help; how a brave band of paratroopers risked their own lives to save the survivors; and how a cowboy colonel attempted a previously untested rescue mission to get them out.

By trekking into the New Guinea jungle, visiting remote villages, and rediscovering the crash site, Zuckoff also captures the contemporary natives’ remembrances of the long-ago day when strange creatures fell from the sky. A riveting work of narrative nonfiction that vividly brings to life an odyssey at times terrifying, enlightening, and comic, Lost in Shangri-La is a thrill ride from beginning to end.

A lost world, man-eating tribesmen, lush and impenetrable jungles, stranded American fliers (one of them a dame with great gams , for heaven's sake), a startling rescue mission. . . . This is a true story made in heaven for a writer as talented as Mitchell Zuckoff. Whewwhat an utterly compelling and deeply satisfying read!" Simon Winchester, author of Atlantic Award-winning former Boston Globe reporter Mitchell Zuckoff unleashes the exhilarating, untold story of an extraordinary World War II rescue mission, where a plane crash in the South Pacific plunged a trio of U.S. military personnel into a land that time forgot. Fans of Hampton Sides Ghost Soldiers , Marcus Luttrells Lone Survivor , and David Granns The Lost Cityof Z will be captivated by Zuckoffs masterfully recounted, all-true story of danger, daring, determination, and discovery in jungle-clad New Guinea during the final days of WWII. Award-winning Former Boston Globe Reporter Mitchell Zuckoff Unleashes The Exhilarating, Untold Story Of An Extraordinary World War Ii Rescue Mission, Where A Plane Crash In The South Pacific Plunged A Trio Of U.s. Military Personnel Into The Jungle-clad Land Of New Guinea Missing -- Hollandia -- Shangri-la -- Gremlin Special -- Eureka! -- Charms -- Tarzan -- Gentleman Explorer -- Guilt And Gangrene -- Earl Walter, Junior And Senior -- Uwambo -- Wimayuk Wandik, Aka Chief Pete -- Come What May -- Five-by-five -- No Thanksgiving -- Rammy And Doc -- Custer And Company -- Bathtime For Yugwe -- Shoo, Shoo Baby -- Hey, Martha! -- Promised Land -- Hollywood -- Gliders? -- Two Queens -- Snatch -- Epilogue: After Shangri-la. Mitchell Zuckoff. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Describes the 1945 odyssey of three plane crash survivors in New Guinea who endured a harrowing journey through the jungle to seek help, their encounter with a primitive tribe who had never seen white people, and their eventual rescue by a band of paratroopers.