1 1 Vol. 12 No. 2 Newsletter of the China Lake Museum Foundation Spring 2006 RESCUE MISSION FOR THE JRB CRASH FROM NAF INYOKERN (See China Laker, Winter 2005, page 4, A Black Day at China Lake) Communication from Travis R. Ivy, Lt. USN Retired,Waco, TX, March 16, 2006 (Editor Note: The JRB-4 Expeditor took off from Armitage Field on February 3, 1949, with two pilots and five civilian scientists en route to Alameda. They crashed in the mountains and were not found until April, 1949.) Cdr Minvielle (the pilot) was either CO or XO of NAF at the time of the crash. We searched for the plane by air for a couple weeks after February 3. After that, I was assigned as leader of a search party with two radio equipped jeeps with whip antennas. We spent about two weeks, mostly in Sequoia Forest. I was somewhat familiar with the area, having been camping there with my family on weekends. This was about the last of February so there was plenty snow around. We located a miners camp near the Forest, and an old timer described to us how a plane circled around in the cove there on the day in question. We did not take much stock in his story, but it could have been so. We went up past Johnsondale Lumber camp as far as we could. Eventually the snow was too deep for the jeeps so we tried to radio in our situation. Bob Collins, AL2 (used to be ARM rating) was with me and he suggested we load up a strand of barbed wire that was visible above the snow. I think there was only this wire of the fence exposed above the snow. Bob suggested that we tie our transmitter to this wire. I, with my antenna theory from AT school, said I didn't think it would work since the wire was attached to post with staples and partly submerged in the snow. We re-tuned the transmitter to match the make shift antenna. NAF came back with "We hear you Loud and Clear". Bob was from Hemet, CA, and had been a ham radio operator since he was about 12 so I should have known better than to question his suggestion. We normally returned to base at night, but we stayed over at Kernville, now under the waters of Kern Lake, that night when we got back down out of the mountains. We must have covered about 100 square miles on our two week search. We had just finished dungaree inspection at NAF, 21 April, when the crashed plane was sighted. It was on Owens Peak, and could be seen from NAF with binoculars because of the spring thaw. An investigation team was formed to be lead by a LCdr, believe his name was Fauber. He asked for volunteers and I was assigned to go and determine what direction finder frequencies they were on when the crash occurred, and to help remove the bodies. It took about a half day to climb the shale covered mountain. There were two branches of the party. The LCdr and a couple of us went right up the side of the mountain while others took horses around the longer way on northeast side. I understand one horse fell over a cliff and had to be shot because of injuries. The three of us reached the site first and found the two pilots had been thrown from the aircraft before it burned, but the five civilian torsos were still in the wreckage. The animals had not discovered the bodies because they had been frozen until very recently. I remember that one of the pilot's watches was close to their bodies with the band broken. It had stopped and I don't know if we determined time of crash from it. The direction finder receiver was burned but I could detect that they were on a certain broadcast station, think it was Bakersfield, but not sure at this point. I was told by the LCdr to make a report to the base, and I started to describe the scene, and he told me to leave out the gruesome stuff. The removal of the bodies was difficult as described in my Letter of Commendation. Page 1 , OCR Text: 1 1 Vol. 12 No. 2 Newsletter of the China Lake Museum Foundation Spring 2006 RESCUE MISSION FOR THE JRB CRASH FROM NAF INYOKERN (See China Laker, Winter 2005, page 4, A Black Day at China Lake) Communication from Travis R. Ivy, Lt. USN Retired,Waco, TX, March 16, 2006 (Editor Note: The JRB-4 Expeditor took off from Armitage Field on February 3, 1949, with two pilots and five civilian scientists en route to Alameda. They crashed in the mountains and were not found until April, 1949.) Cdr Minvielle (the pilot) was either CO or XO of NAF at the time of the crash. We searched for the plane by air for a couple weeks after February 3. After that, I was assigned as leader of a search party with two radio equipped jeeps with whip antennas. We spent about two weeks, mostly in Sequoia Forest. I was somewhat familiar with the area, having been camping there with my family on weekends. This was about the last of February so there was plenty snow around. We located a miners camp near the Forest, and an old timer described to us how a plane circled around in the cove there on the day in question. We did not take much stock in his story, but it could have been so. We went up past Johnsondale Lumber camp as far as we could. Eventually the snow was too deep for the jeeps so we tried to radio in our situation. Bob Collins, AL2 (used to be ARM rating) was with me and he suggested we load up a strand of barbed wire that was visible above the snow. I think there was only this wire of the fence exposed above the snow. Bob suggested that we tie our transmitter to this wire. I, with my antenna theory from AT school, said I didn't think it would work since the wire was attached to post with staples and partly submerged in the snow. We re-tuned the transmitter to match the make shift antenna. NAF came back with "We hear you Loud and Clear". Bob was from Hemet, CA, and had been a ham radio operator since he was about 12 so I should have known better than to question his suggestion. We normally returned to base at night, but we stayed over at Kernville, now under the waters of Kern Lake, that night when we got back down out of the mountains. We must have covered about 100 square miles on our two week search. We had just finished dungaree inspection at NAF, 21 April, when the crashed plane was sighted. It was on Owens Peak, and could be seen from NAF with binoculars because of the spring thaw. An investigation team was formed to be lead by a LCdr, believe his name was Fauber. He asked for volunteers and I was assigned to go and determine what direction finder frequencies they were on when the crash occurred, and to help remove the bodies. It took about a half day to climb the shale covered mountain. There were two branches of the party. The LCdr and a couple of us went right up the side of the mountain while others took horses around the longer way on northeast side. I understand one horse fell over a cliff and had to be shot because of injuries. The three of us reached the site first and found the two pilots had been thrown from the aircraft before it burned, but the five civilian torsos were still in the wreckage. The animals had not discovered the bodies because they had been frozen until very recently. I remember that one of the pilot's watches was close to their bodies with the band broken. It had stopped and I don't know if we determined time of crash from it. The direction finder receiver was burned but I could detect that they were on a certain broadcast station, think it was Bakersfield, but not sure at this point. I was told by the LCdr to make a report to the base, and I started to describe the scene, and he told me to leave out the gruesome stuff. The removal of the bodies was difficult as described in my Letter of Commendation. Page 1 , China Lake Museum,China Laker - Newsletter,China Laker 2000s,China Laker 2006,Vol+12+No+2+Spring+2006.pdf,Vol+12+No+2+Spring+2006.pdf Page 1, Vol+12+No+2+Spring+2006.pdf Page 1