292 “survived a hideous plane crash”: Ibid.
292 “I don’t think I can pick up”: “Corporal Margaret Hastings and Two Companions Are Rescued by Glider,” news clipping in Hastings’s scrapbook, TCHS.
292 “This is the best weather”: Ibid.
293 “Are you nervous”: Report of Samuels, reprinted in Imparato, Rescue from Shangri-La, p. 143.
293 135 miles per hour: United Press, “Glider Rescue Almost Ends in Second Tragedy,” Schenectady (N.Y.) Gazette, July 2, 1945.
293 “Oh boy. Oh boy”: Ozzie St. George, “Rescue From Shangri-La,” Yank: The Army Weekly, August 17, 1945, p. 6.
293 slowed the Leaking Louise: Ibid.
294 about one thousand feet: United Press, “Glider Rescue Almost Ends in Second Tragedy,” Schenectady (N.Y.) Gazette, July 2, 1945, p. 7.
295 through the upper branches: Ibid.
295 grazed a treetop: Hastings, SLD, part 18.
295 “into our line of vision”: Ibid.
295 hands sweating: Ibid.
295 “as far as she can go”: Associated Press story, unbylined but written by Ralph Morton, “Trio, Snatched Out of Valley, Arrive Safely,” Walter’s scrapbook.
295 cut the glider loose: John McCollom, interview, October 1997.
295 “Let ’em heat up”: Ibid.
295 a persistent slap-slap noise: Hastings, SLD, part 18.
296 tried not to look: Ibid.
296 one more task: McCollom and Walter, joint interview, May 13, 1998.
296 cylinder heads . . . overheating: Report of Samuels, reprinted in Imparato, Rescue from Shangri-La, p. 144.
296 “brushing the mountain tops”: United Press, “Glider Rescue Almost Ends in Second Tragedy,” Schenectady (N.Y.) Gazette, July 2, 1945.
EPILOGUE: AFTER SHANGRI-LA
298 landed a quarter mile away: St. George, “Rescue from Shangri-La,” p. 6.
298 “Get a haircut and shave”: Transcript of press conference, reprinted in Imparato, Rescue from Shangri-La, pp. 184–89.
298 “The Four Musketeers”: Walter, CEW, June 30, 1945.
299 “We were excited to go.” Lisaniak Mabel, interview. This account is supported by a passage in a story printed in the Jungle Journal 1, no. 5 (July 4, 1945): “One boy the Filipinos were reluctant to leave behind was a chap whom they named Smiley. . . . For a few minutes, they thought they had him talked into a new future, but in the end he backed out.”
300 “The identity of the valley”: Science, n.s., 102, no. 2652 (October 26, 1945): 14.
303 letters to the victims’ families: Lt. Col. Donald Wardle, chief of the Army Disposition Branch, Memorial Division, to Mr. Rolla McCollom, father of Robert and John McCollom, May 1, 1959, in McCollom’s IDPF.
304 “segregation was not possible”: Ibid.
304 honorary pallbearer: Lieutenant Colonel Anne O’Sullivan, “Plane Down, WACs Aboard,” Women’s Army Corps Journal 5, no. 5 (October–December 1974): 16.
304 a lei of vanda orchids: Ibid.
304 Robert McCollom’s wedding ring: Wardle to Mrs. Cecelia A. McCollom, the widow of Robert McCollom, May 13, 1959. (Coincidentally, fourteen years to the date after the crash.)
305 his best friend: Melvyn Lutgring, interview by author, January 9, 2010.
305 larger historical event: Inteview with Margaret Harvey, Henry Palmer’s daughter, on March 12, 2010. See also obituary of Henry Earl Palmer, Watchman (Clinton, La.), October 28, 1991.
306 offered a choice: Samuels, Reflections of an Airline Pilot, p. 76.
306 military honors: “Ray Elsmore, 66.”
306 An obituary: Ibid.
306 obituary of George Lait: “George Lait, Coast Publicist, Dies at 51,” New York Times, January 13, 1958.
306 Ralph Morton: Associated Press obituary, “Ralph Morton, Former War Reporter,” Newsday, October 20, 1988, p. 41.
306 Walter Simmons: Jensen, “Walter Simmons, 1908–2006.”
307 “stopped off to be an alcoholic”: Tony Stephens, “Talented Agent Loved His Actors,” obituary of John Cann, Sydney Morning Herald, September 25, 2008, www.smh.com.au/news/obituaries/talented-agent-loved-his-actors/2008/09/24/1222217327095.html (retrieved August 14, 2009).
307 returned to acting: Reuters obituary, “Canadian Actor Dies,” Ottawa Citizen, December 22, 1977. See also Cann, interview, and follow-up e-mails.
307 Lucille Moseley: “Filipino Scout Weds U.S. Girl,” undated news clipping in Walter’s scrapbook. Accompanied by a second unbylined, undated clipping headlined “Shangri-La Hero Here.”
308 dissolved the 1st Recon: Commendation letter signed by Douglas MacArthur, dated August 15, 1945, found in Margaret Hastings’s correspondence file at TCHS.
309 “ ‘Did you earn that?’ ”: Walter, interview by author, March 1, 2010.
309 last entry in his journal: Walter, CEW, July 3, 1945.
309 “highlight of my life”: Walter, interview by author, March 1, 2010.
310 married late in life: Betty McCollom, interview.
310 a telephone call every year: John McCollom, interview, October 1997.
310 tears to his eyes: John S. McCollom to retired Colonel Edward T. Imparato. See Imparato, Rescue from Shangri-La, p. 160.
310 left the military in 1946: John S. McCollom’s obituary, Dayton Daily News, August 21, 2001, p. 10, provided by Betty McCollom.
310 “Why wasn’t I killed instead of them?”: Ibid.
311 “a baby daughter he had never seen”: McCollom to Imparato, printed in Rescue from Shangri-La, p. 160.
311 Robert, alive, waiting for them: Pond, “Reunion,” pp. 18–19. During his unaired interview with John McCollom, Robert Gardner tried sensitively to raise the subject of Robert McCollom’s death, but each time John McCollom changed the subject or said something along the lines of, “I was lucky.”
311 too weak to carry him: Betty McCollom, interview.
312 his own obituary: McCollom’s obituary.
312 “most celebrated young woman”: Miller, “Reconversion of a Heroine,” p. 5.
312 “She’s blonde”: “Read Shangri-La Diary,” Boston Sunday Advertiser, July 15, 1945, n.p., Margaret Hastings’s scrapbook, TCHS.
312 fielding offers: “The Price of Fame,” editorial, apparently from the Owego Gazette, July 14, 1945, in Margaret Hastings’s scrapbook, TCHS.
312 “true comic”: Frances Ullman, editor of Calling All Girls magazine, to Margaret Hastings, July 19, 1945, in Margaret Hastings’s correspondence file, TCHS.
312 dined at Toots Shor’s: Miller, “Reconversion of a Heroine,” p. 5.
312 three thousand people: Stuart A. Dunham, “Shangri-La WAC Home, Finds Every Girl’s Dream Come True,” Binghamton Press, July 20, 1945.
313 “alligator pumps”: “Owego Welcomes WAC Home,” Owego Gazette, July 20, 1945.
313 movie offers: Ibid.
313 Loretta Young: Sidney Skolsky, “Hollywood Is My Beat,” undated gossip column clipping in Margaret Hastings’s scrapbook, TCHS.
313 waving their handkerchiefs and crying: Miller, “Reconversion of a Heroine,”, p. 5.
314 fourteen different states: Tour schedule contained in Margaret Hastings’s correspondence file, TCHS.
314 letter is chaste: Letter from Don Ruiz to Margaret Hastings, dated October 10, 1945, in Margaret Hastings’s correspondence file, TCHS.
314 “I have the deepest sympathy”: Colonel Luther Hill to Margaret G. Nicholson, July 21, 1945, provided by Major Nicholson’s family.
314 “‘my commander’s widow’”: Interview with John McCarthy, September 13, 2009.
315 “overwhelmed with war stories”: Callahan, interview.
316 “if he didn’t drown”: Associated Press, “Former WAC Recalls 47-Day Jungle Ordeal,” Los Angeles Times, November 26, 1961.
316 honorary members: “Hidden Valley Survivors to be Honored,” Silent Wings 1, no. 4 (September 1974): 1.
316 “doing what has to be done”: Pond, “Reunion.”
316 “You bet!”: Ibid., p. 18.
316 “a good fight”: Callahan, interview.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alexander, Larry. Shadows in the Jungle: The Alamo Scouts Behind Enemy Lines in World War II. New York: NAL Caliber, 2009.
Bender, Thomas. Rethinking American History in a Global Age. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002.
Brown, Jerold E. Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Army. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2001.
Clarinbould, Michael John. The Forgotten Fifth: A Photographic Chronology of the U.S. Fifth Air Force in World War II. Hyde Park, N.Y.: Balus Design, 2007.
Connolly, Bob, and Robin Anderson. First Contact: New Guinea’s Highlanders Encounter the Outside World. New York: Viking, 1987.
Devlin, Gerard M. Silent Wings: The Saga of the U.S. Army and Marine Combat Glider Pilots during World War II. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985.
Diamond, Jared. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York: Viking, 2005.
_________. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997.
Dwiggins, Don. On Silent Wings: Adventures in Motorless Flight. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1970.
Flannery, Tim. Throwim Way Leg: Tree-Kangaroos, Possums and Penis Gourds. New York: Grove Press, 1998.
Gardner, Robert. Making Dead Birds: Chronicle of a Film. Cambridge, Mass.: Peabody Museum Press, 2007.
Gardner, Robert, and Karl G. Heider. Gardens of War: Life and Death in the New Guinea Stone Age. New York: Random House, 1968.
Hampton, O. W. “Bud.” Culture of Stone: Sacred and Profane Uses of Stone among the Dani. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1999.
Harrer, Heinrich. I Come from the Stone Age. London: Companion Book Club, 1964.
Hayward, Douglas. The Dani of Irian Jaya Before and After Conversion. Sentani, Indonesia: Regions Press, 1980.
Heider, Karl G. The Dugum Dani: A Papuan Culture in the Highlands of West New Guinea. Chicago: Aldine, 1970.
_________. Grand Valley Dani: Peaceful Warriors. 3rd ed. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Group, 1997.
Hilton, James. Lost Horizon. New York: Pocket Books, 1960.
Hitt, Russell T. Cannibal Valley: The Heroic Struggle for Christ in Savage New Guinea—The Most Perilous Mission Frontier in the World. New York: Harper & Row, 1962
Imparato, Edward T. Rescue from Shangri-La. Paducah, Ky.: Turner, 1997.
Keats, John. They Fought Alone. New York: Pocket Books, 1965.
Lowden, John L. Silent Wings at War: Combat Gliders in World War II. Washington, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.
Manchester, William. American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880–1964. New York: Little, Brown, 1978.
Matthiessen, Peter. Under the Mountain Wall: A Chronicle of Two Seasons in Stone Age New Guinea. New York: Viking, 1962.
Meiselas, Susan. Encounters with the Dani: Stories from the Baliem Valley. New York: Steidl/International Center for Photography, 2003.
Miller, Stuart Creighton. Benevolent Assimilation: The American Conquest of the Philippines, 1899–1903. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1984.
Morison, Samuel Eliot. History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II. Vol. 8, New Guinea and the Marianas, March 1944–August 1944. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2002.
Morse, Roger A. Richard Archbold and the Archbold Biological Station. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000.
Rottman, Gordon L. U.S. Special Warfare Units in the Pacific Theater, 1941–45: Scouts, Raiders, Rangers and Reconnaissance Units. New York: Osprey, 2005.
_________. World War II Pacific Island Guide: A Geo-Military Study. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2001.
Samuels, William. Reflections of an Airline Pilot. San Francisco, Calif.: Monterey Pacific, 1999.
Sandler, Stanley. World War II in the Pacific: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 2001.
Sargent, Wyn. People of the Valley: Life with a Cannibal Tribe in New Guinea. New York: Random House, 1974.
Schieffelin, Edward L., and Robert Crittenden. Like People You See in a Dream: First Contact in Six Papuan Societies. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1991.
Schneebaum, Tobias. Where the Spirits Dwell: Odyssey in the Jungle of New Guinea. New York: Grove Press, 1988.
Sheehan, Susan. A Missing Plane: The Dramatic Tragedy and Triumph of a Lost and Forgotten World War II Bomber. New York: Berkeley Books, 1986.
Souter, Gavin. New Guinea: The Last Unknown. Sydney, Australia: Angus & Robertson, 1964.
Treadwell, Mattie E. The Women’s Army Corps. Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chief of Military History, Dept. of the Army, 1954.
Weise, Selene H. C. The Good Soldier: The Story of a Southwest Pacific Signal Corps WAC. Shippensburg, Pa.: Burd Street Press, 1999.
Yellin, Emily. Our Mothers’ War: American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II. New York: Free Press, 2004.
INDEX
The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific entry, please use the search function of your eBook reader.
Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations. Page numbers 329 and higher refer to notes.
Abrenica, Santiago “Sandy,” 162–63, 183–84, 197–98, 200, 201, 242, 252, 265, 279, 298, 307, 317
Abumpuk, 184
ahkuni (people), 117
AIDS, 301
Air Medal for Meritorious Achievement, 305
airplanes:
and Native New Guineans, 25, 27, 38, 86, 124–26, 288, 290, 291
see also gliders; specific airplanes
alcohol, 190, 226, 243
Alerta, Custodio, 165, 200, 219, 253, 298, 307, 317
Allen, G. Reynolds, 277–79, 287, 317
alliances, 117
American flag, 206, 206, 237
Amundsen, Roald, 80
ane (noise), 124
anekuku (planes), 124, 184
anewoo (planes), 124–26
Antonini, Herman F., 56
Aquilio, Esther “Ack Ack,” 224
Archbold, John D., 80–81
Archbold, Richard:
discovery of Shangri-La by, 79, 80–91, 83, 181, 300, 317
later years and death of, 300
and Native New Guinean shooting death, 89, 90–91, 129, 202, 342
Archbold Biological Station, 300
Arlington National Cemetery, 304
Arnold, H. H. “Hap,” 215
Arthur, Hugh, 225
Atkinson, Robert, 315
atom bomb, 29, 129–30, 268, 308
Australia, HMAS, 249
B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, 98, 99, 100–101, 104, 130, 310
B-24 Liberator bombers, 8, 98
B-25 Mitchell bombers, 8, 98, 256, 287, 293
Babcock, John, 106–7, 109, 147–48
Baga, Ai, 199, 284
Bahala na! (Come what may!) motto, 141, 151, 166, 241
Baker, William D., 99–101, 104, 152, 237, 310, 317
Baliem River, 88, 105, 199, 225, 271, 300
Baliem Valley, 24–25, 116, 122, 134, 301, 302
see also Shangri-La
“bamboo bombers,” 261
Baron, Harry, 278
Barron, Theodore “Ted,” 73, 74
Bataan Death March, 142, 146, 163
Baylon, Alfred “Weylon,” 165, 199, 200, 235, 242, 252, 265, 273–74, 298, 307, 317
Besley, Laura, 13, 14, 211, 304, 317, 331, 334, 338
aboard Gremlin Special, 35
death of, 67–68, 69, 74–75
in Gremlin Special crash, 52–54, 60, 63–64
“Betty” (dive-bomber), 249
big man (tribal leader), 117, 201, 284
biological research, 81–91
blue-star families, 1–3, 154, 215
Boston Sunday Advertiser, 312
Brass, L. J., 86–87
Bronze Star, 307
Bulatao, Benjamin “Doc” “Mumu,” 162–65, 165, 166–67, 173–80, 190, 193–94, 193, 195, 196, 208, 210, 219, 227–28, 232–33, 235, 237, 240, 268, 307–8, 317
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 90
burial mission, 210–14, 212
C-46, 260
C-47 Skytrain, 33–34, 33, 72, 98, 152, 156, 159, 173, 182, 198, 255–56, 260
as tow plane in glider snatch mission, 262–63, 267, 293, 295; see also Leaking Louise
see also Gremlin Special
C-60 transport plane, 19–20, 23, 98
Callahan, Rita Hastings, 2, 4, 226, 313, 315, 316
Calling All Girls, 312
“Camp Shangri-La,” 242–45, 252–54, 268–84
glider snatch of survivors from, see glider snatch mission
Camp X, 112
Cann, Alexander (Alexander Cross), 243–51, 245, 246, 255, 271, 274, 283, 298, 318
alcoholism of, 245, 247, 248
back injury of, 248–49
charm of, 246, 247, 248
drunken parachute jump of, 243–45, 250
as filmmaker, 248–49, 251, 254, 268, 280, 288, 289, 307
Hollywood acting career of, 246–48
jewel heist scandal of, 247–48
later life and death of, 307
in military, 248–49
recklessness of, 243–45, 250
Shangri-La documentary of, 243, 251, 254, 263, 280, 288, 289, 302, 307
Cann, Alexandra, 246, 250
Cann, H. V., 245–46
Cann, June Dunlop, 307
Cann, Mabel Ross, 245
cannibals, cannibalism, 25, 28, 30, 88, 119, 129, 130, 132, 150, 186, 222, 348
Caoili, Hermenegildo “Superman” “Iron Man,” 165, 197–98, 200, 207, 210, 219, 298, 307, 318
Challenger Bay, 83
Chicago Tribune, 220–21, 224, 225, 226, 306
clans, 117
Clement, General, 192
Comfort, USS, 97
Commendation Award, 306
confederations, 117
Cook, Captain, 10
Copernicus, 116
Corregidor island, 21, 106, 141, 146
Coster, Earl, 56
Coster, Ruth, 36, 36, 56, 154, 219
cowrie shells, 87, 88, 134, 252,269–70
Cronkite, Walter, 261
Cross, Alexander, see Cann, Alexander
crying ceremony, 291