Lost in Shangri-La : A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II

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.

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since 1941, and some blue-star banners had already been replaced
by banners with gold stars, signifying a loss for a larger gain and a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.

On November 5, 1942, a U.S. cargo plane on a routine flight slammed into the Greenland ice cap. Four days later, a B-17 on the search-and-rescue mission became lost in a blinding storm and also crashed. Miraculously, all nine men on the B-17 survived. The U.S. military launched a second daring rescue operation, but the Grumman Duck amphibious plane sent to find the men flew into a severe storm and vanished. In this thrilling adventure, Mitchell Zuckoff offers a spellbinding account of these harrowing disasters and the fate of the survivors and their would-be saviors. "Frozen in Time" places us at the center of a group of valiant airmen fighting to stay alive through 148 days of a brutal Arctic winter by sheltering from subzero temperatures and vicious blizzards in the tail section of the broken B-17 until an expedition headed by famed Arctic explorer Bernt Balchen attempts to bring them to safety. But that is only part of the story that unfolds in "Frozen in Time." In present-day Greenland, Zuckoff joins the U.S. Coast Guard and North South Polar - a company led by the indefatigable dreamer Lou Sapienza, who worked for years to solve the mystery of the Duck's last flight - on a dangerous expedition to recover the remains of the lost plane's crew. Drawing on intensive research and Zuckoff 's firsthand account of the dramatic 2012 expedition, "Frozen in Time" is a breathtaking blend of mystery, adventure, heroism, and survival. It is also a poignant reminder of the sacrifices of our military personnel and their families - and a tribute to the important, perilous, and often-overlooked work of the U.S. Coast Guard On November 5, 1942, a US cargo plane slammed into the Greenland Ice Cap. Four days later, the B-17 assigned to the search-and-rescue mission became lost in a blinding storm and also crashed. Miraculously, all nine men on board survived, and the US military launched a daring rescue operation. But after picking up one man, the Grumman Duck amphibious plane flew into a severe storm and vanished. Frozen in Time tells the story of these crashes and the fate of the survivors, bringing vividly to life their battle to endure 148 days of the brutal Arctic winter, until an expedition headed by famed Arctic explorer Bernt Balchen brought them to safety. Mitchell Zuckoff takes the reader deep into the most hostile environment on earth, through hurricane-force winds, vicious blizzards, and subzero temperatures. Moving forward to today, he recounts the efforts of the Coast Guard and North South Polar Inc. led by indefatigable dreamer Lou Sapienza who worked for years to solve the mystery of the Ducks last flight and recover the remains of its crew. A breathtaking blend of mystery and adventure Mitchell Zuckoff's Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II is also a poignant reminder of the sacrifices of our military personnel and a tribute to the everyday heroism of the US Coast Guard. In Nov. 1942 A U.s. Cargo Plane Crashed Into The Greenland Ice Cap, The B-17 Sent On The Search-and-rescue Mission Got Caught In A Storm And Also Crashed, Miraculously All Nine Men Aboard Survived. A Second Rescue Operation Was Launched, But The Plane, The Grumman Duck, Flew Into A Storm And Vanished. The Survivors Of The B-17 Spent 148 Days Fighting To Stay Alive While Waiting For Rescue By Famed Explorer Bernt Balchen. Then In 2012 The U.s. Coast Guard And North South Polar Mount An Expedition To Solve The Mystery Of The Vanished Plane And Recover The Remains Of The Lost Plane's Crew. Prologue : The Duck -- Greenland -- A Mother That Devours Her Children -- Flying In Milk -- The Duck Hunter -- A Shallow Turn -- Man Down -- A Light In The Darkness -- The Holy Grail -- Short Snorters -- Frozen Tears -- Don't Try It -- Mos--quick! -- Taps -- Glacier Worms -- Shooting Out The Lights -- Snublebluss -- Outwitting The Arctic -- Shitbags -- Dumbo On Ice -- Iceholes -- Crossed Wires -- The Ten-meter Anomaly -- Some Plan In This World -- Down To The Wire -- After Greenland. Mitchell Zuckoff. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [349]-376) And Index. 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. In Nov. 1942 a U.S. cargo plane crashed into the Greenland ice cap, the B-17 sent on the search-and-rescue mission got caught in a storm and also crashed, miraculously all nine men aboard surrived. A second rescue operation was launched, but the plane, the Grumman Duck, flew into a storm and vanished. The survivors of the B-17 spent 148 days fighting to stay alive while waiting for rescue by famed explorer Bernt Balchen. Then in 2012 the U.S. Coast Guard and North South Polar mount an expedition to solve the mystery of the vanished plane and recover the remains of the lost plane's crew. This book tells the story and fate of the survivors of a 1942 B-17 crash as they spent 148 days fighting to stay alive while waiting for rescue by famed explorer Bernt Balchen. The text contains profanity. On November 5, 1942 a U.S. cargo plane on a routine flight slammed into the Greenland ice cap. Four days later, a B-17 on the search-and-rescue mission became lost in a blinding storm and also crashed. The U.S. military launched a second daring rescue operation, but the plane sent to find the men flew into a severe storm and vanished. This account details the fate of the survivors and their would-be saviors. Three months before the end of World War II, a U.S. Army plane flying over New Guinea crashed in uncharted mountains inhabited by a Stone Age tribe. Nineteen passengers and crew were killed and two were mortally wounded. But somehow three survived: a lieutenant whose twin brother died in the crash, a sergeant who suffered terrible head wounds, and a beautiful member of the Women's Army Corps. Greenland A mother that devours her children Flying in milk The duck hunter Man down A light in the darkness The holy grail Short snorters Frozen tears Don't try it MOs Quick! Taps Glacier worms Shooting out the lights Snublebluss Outwitting the Arctic Shitbags Dumbo on ice Iceholes Crossed wires The Ten-meter anomaly Some plan in this world Down to the wire After Greenland. 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.