[ARC5] Gibson Girl- Response Summary

[J. Forster]

Hi,

On the question of documented Gibson Girl rescues, here is a collection of
responses I've received:

In the pacific the Japanese spoofed the Gibson Girl hoping to sink any
rescue ships.

Fred W4JLE

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I was a radio operator on the US Navy P2 patrol plane during VietNam era,
yes, I do recall the Gibson Girl yellow transmitters on board, as part of
the life raft equipment, that was somehow crammed into the main wing right
near the radio compartment.
We received periodic refresher training on them. I never used one, and a
living testimony to talk about that.  Ha ha.

Chuck

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In Latitude 38, a West Coast sailing magazine there was an account of a
Gibson Girl signal playing a key role in a yacht rescue near San Francisco
about 20? years ago. Definitely decades after WW2. The story was written
by a USCG pilot who was on the mission. The pilot had his ADF tuned to 500
KC. There was a big storm raging. Not sure how the distressed yacht
managed to get an antenna up. Kite?

I commercial fished tuna between Midway Island and Japan in the early 80s.
We carried a Gibson Girl complete with hydrogen generators, box kite,
balloon, etc. Bought it from George Bello, an Oakland CA surplus dealer.
Anyone remember George? The Gibson Girl came with a yellow tag indicating
that it had been on a USAF C 130. It was in a yellow bag laced up with
something like a long shoelace. Fortunately we never had to transmit a
Mayday or SOS. Got a many tons of Albacore tuna out there. Delivered them
in Hawaii. Good times.

Mark
AF6IM

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Here is a documented Gibson Girl rescue:

73, Bruce WA8TNC
================

39th Bomb Group
Osaka Mission 1 June 1945
Crew 30

Just after landfall that day, Orr and his Crew 30 had trouble with an
engine, but they refused to abandon the mission and went on to the target
just before bombs away, a direct flak hit struck another engine and put it
out of commission.

Then, shortly after land's end, the propeller broke from the engine that
had first given trouble and struck the B-29's fuselage with great force. A
gaping hole was torn in the airplane, placing it in imminent danger of
breaking up in the air.

Working from the right side of the plane, Qrr and his pilot, Lieutenant
Monte Frodsham, were able to bring the bomber under some measure of control
and to maintain flight through some five hundred miles of turbulent frontal
weather on instruments in a right-wing-low, nose-down attitude.

The B-29 was in perilous condition with accumulated damage now amounting to
the loss of two engines, a flak hit in the third, damage to the flight
controls and the hole in the fuselage. As a matter of fact, whenever Bill
Orr pulled back on the controls the whole plane would bend and the crew
thought that it must surely fall apart in mid-air.

After flying for several hours in this extremely dangerous state, the plane
finally came out of the overcast and sighted a small-uninhabited island.
There Orr ordered the crew to bail out.

Then one of the bravest acts of the 39th Group's history took place. The
flight engineer couldn't swim, so Monte Frodsham took him on his back and
jumped from the stricken plane. Monte hoped that he would be able to assist
the engineer when they got into the water. But the force of the air tore
the man from the pilot's back and they fell separately.

Orr remained with his plane and was the last to leave. Although he was
barely managing to stay in flight with the one engine he had left, he
refused to bail out until he was sure that all his men were out safely. He
circled the spot where they had jumped until he saw them all in the water,
and then, despite the fact that the B-29 was rapidly losing altitude and
might blow up at any moment, he flew it away from the vicinity so that it
could not possibly hit any of the survivors in the water when it crashed.

Then Bill jumped at a dangerously low altitude. He got into the water
safely and was later picked up, along with the other men, by Navy rescue
facilities.

And in connection with the rescue, there is another remarkable story to
tell...

Staff Sergeant James E. Schwoegler, Orr's radio operator, had stayed in the
crippled plane until the last minute to assure himself that the ground
station received his position report of the bail out.

The Navy sent a rescue submarine immediately, and Captain Robert S. Laak of
Crew 45 (62nd Squadron) took off in a B-29 to help locate Crew 30's
survivors.

Laak got the vicinity of Orr's bailout on 2 June. A B-17 had already
dropped the men a Higgins lifeboat, after sighting them the day before.
But, shortly after Laak and his crew left Iwo Jima, the weather closed in
to such an extent that the entire search mission, which lasted about ten
hours, was flown on instruments at altitudes varying from 100 to 500 feet.

On the approach to the vicinity where the survivors had been seen, Sergeant
Lloyd W. Dunnet, Laak's radio operator, made contact with two submarines,
one of which was eventually directed to the survivors.

Orr and his crew were close to Sofu Gan Island, a bare rock jutting
straight out of the ocean.

This island was a dangerous obstacle to Laak's flying, for available maps
did not show its altitude.

However, it was picked up by radar and shortly thereafter an SOS from Off's
Gibson Girl was picked up on the radio compass.

Laak was at low altitude in a complete overcast and could not see a thing.
But he persisted in his efforts to find the survivors and direct the sub to
them. He homed on the SOS until the signal would fade out, and then he
would circle in that area until he could pick up the signal again. Then he
would home on it again, and gradually, after hours spent in this sort of
thing, he was sure that he was right over the men in the water. At this
time the altimeter indicated 200 feet, but the overcast was so thick that
the surface of the water could not be seen.

Laak's radar observer, Lieutenant Edward M. Coon, plotted the position
where he was sure the Higgins boat was. This information was transmitted to
the submarine nearest the spot. Then the B-29 continued to circle the
position where the survivors were and to give instructions to the sub.

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Thanks,

-John

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