The Lake Murray B-25 just handed over another treasure.

Tuesday afternoon about 2:00, I had just walked out into the shop from a
typical beaurocratic grant-writing meeting that had lasted nearly four
hours. I was just glad to be back out in my shop, just got a fresh cup of
coffee, smelled the oil and dirt, life is getting better, and then suddenly
somebody working in the nose section of the B-25 shouts out, "WE'VE GOT A
WATCH!!!"

Sure enough, trapped up under the instrument panel for the past 62 years was
a very small and slim gold rectangular watch with a narrow leather band. It
was so delicate I thought it might be a ladies' watch at first. I would have
expected to find a genuine GI hack watch in there. Turns out it is a man's
dress Bulova tank watch, from what I can tell either a Minuteman or Ranger
model. This would have been a 17 or 21 jewel with a small sweep second hand
in the 6:00 position.

It gets even better, it is engraved on the back... "Ruth to Bob 03-05-43".
The entire case and band are intact and actually in near-perfect condition.
The face and movement didn't fare so well. The inside of the crystal is just
a metallic wash. The serial number and "14 carat gold filled" are still
clearly readable on the back. Other than the corrosion of the internals, the
watch looks nearly brand new. The plane went in the drink on 04-04-43, only
29 days after the inscription. The watch IS nearly brand new!!

I at first figured this must have belonged to a mechanic who left it in the
front end there and forgot it. Turns out the copilot's name was Robert. The
copilot, and presumed owner of the watch, was killed in a training accident
only a month later in May 1943. Whoever "Ruth" was had a hard couple of
months there. First, the expensive $50 watch she gave Bob is lost in the
lake and then Bob is gone only a month later. The first thought that hit my
mind when I saw the inscription was "poor Ruth", whoever she might have
been.

Tracking "Bob" down is obviously impossible. We are indeed going to try to
track down who "Ruth" is but our prospects are very dim with so little to go
on and so much time past.

This personal stuff is what keeps me going. The hat emblem off the
bombardier instructors cap he told us about leaving in teh navigator's area,
the E-6B with the wind marks on the face found in the nose greenhouse, the
altitude computer with arithmetical figures on the back side in pencil, the
girlfriend's names scribed in the side of the nose, "Bad Check" penciled on
the side of the nose nearby the names... now a genuine and very personal
artifact with TWO names, a date, etc... I had been really getting kind of
sick and tired of dealing with this plane of late. It is in SUCH awful
condition it is overwhelming and just seems downright pointless at times.
Finding stuff like this is what keeps you plowing ahead, though.   Mike C.