Pieces of World War II-era Plane Found in Michigan Farm Field

From the November 13, 2012, Northwest (Il) Herald, by AP.

Four men have unearthed pieces of what they call a WW II-era fighter plane that crashed into a southeastern Michigan farm field Oct. 15, 1941, about six weeks before war started for the U.S..  Jim Clary, his brother Ben--an 88-year-old World War II veteran and two others made the discovery using metal detectors just east of Richmond in St. Clair County.

Several chards were recovered about 8 inches deep in the dirt.  Clary grew up in Richmond and remembered hearing locals tell about the crash.  He studied copies of the investigation reports, old news articles and Google Earth and talked to a 92-year old woman who witnessed the crash.  The search had to wait until the soybean crop was harvested.

The recovered fragments are from a P-38D Lightning which had been piloted by 2nd lt. Al Voss, a native of Elgin, Illinois, who was assigned to the 94th Pursuit Squadron stationed at Selfridge Air Base in Michigan.  he was killed trying to parachute from the diving plane.

Proof the chards were from the plane was in the camouflage patterns that matched the ones used by the squadron.

They plan to give the artifacts to a museum at the Selfridge Air National Guard Base.

Even though our country was not at war, preparations for one were everywhere in those years before Dec. 7th.

Always Great When History Is recovered.  --GreGen