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From: "Ed Anderson" <eanderson@carolina.rr.com>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
References: <list-883000@logan.com>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] Not rotary, but you guys will probably appreciate this
Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2005 08:53:37 -0500
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Fascinating and poignant to handle such artifacts from a past long gone and 
wonder who, what, where and when.  The stories that lie behind such gifts 
are life itself. Being a bit of a history buff myself, I can understand your 
interest in such, Mike.

Ed A
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael D. Callahan" <micallahan@worldnet.att.net>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2005 1:37 AM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Not rotary, but you guys will probably appreciate this


> 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.
>
>
> --
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>