Duck Hunt Photos – Getting to Greenland

Posted by Dan Bender, Sunday, August 29, 2010

Kulusuk, Greenland, is the staging ppoint for the team looking for missing World War II Coast Guardsmen.

Kulusuk, Greenland, is the staging point for the team looking for missing World War II Coast Guardsmen.

As part of the Coast Guard’s effort to locate a missing World War II air crew, a team has been dispatched to the frozen Greenland ice cap.  Getting there was half the battle.

The journey to Greenland began Friday morning at Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., when Cmdr. Jim Blow and Master Chief Petty Officer John Long, from CG-711 Aviation Forces, departed with a C-130J crew and headed north.  Their first stop was Trenton, N.J. where the contractors from North South Polar, Inc., were waiting with weeks worth of supplies and equipment for the desolate and unforgiving ice.  Also waiting were a camera crew from HDNet World Report and a correspondent from the New York Times.

The next stop was St. John’s, Newfoundland, where the team stayed overnight and prepared for the last leg of the trip aboard the C-130 to Kulusuk, Greenland, Saturday.  Today the 15-person team will take helicopters chartered from Air Greenland over a hundred miles west into the frozen wild of East Greenland.

Two helicopters have already left with the first wave of scientists to get the search started as soon as possible.  The rest of us will be out there in the next few hours.  Stay tuned for more updates.

Members of the search team discuss the case during the flight to Greenland.

Members of the search team discuss the case during the flight to Greenland.

Monique Mugnier, a correspondent for the New York Times helps make red flags from duct tape and bamboo poles to marks search patterns and safe zones in the ice.

During the flight to Kulusuk Monique Mugnier, a correspondent for the New York Times helps make red flags from duct tape and bamboo poles to mark search patterns and safe zones in the ice.

Team members and ground crew at the Kulusuk airport unload the C-130J.

Team members and ground crew at the Kulusuk airport unload the C-130J.

The C-130J from Elizabeth City, N.C., departs Kulusuk after dropping off the team and their equipment.

The C-130J from Elizabeth City, N.C., departs Kulusuk after dropping off the team and their equipment.

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  • Cole

    Go get’em guys, bring them home!

  • BMCS Jack Crowley USCG Ret.

    What a story, can’t wait to see the follow ups.

  • Don Wankel,Sr

    Very interesting story and waiting to see more pictures.

  • CHUCK MCCALL

    God speed to the them.

  • Rod Sinclair

    Great story and great talking you on the air in Canadian airspace on the way up and back. Safe journey’s.

    Trenton Military OUT

  • Matt Webster

    Excellent story, good luck to you all and bring them home.

  • Ed Richardson (Bottoms)

    I’m praying they finally come home.

  • http://facebook Gary Cunningham

    While on Northwind in the mid 70′s we were able to locate and honor a flight crew lost in ww2. It was humbling and a great privilige to be in the presence of fallen heroes. Thank you for your dedicated work in bringing some more of America’s finest back home.

  • http://DuckHunt-Lt.Pritchard'slastflight CAPT Donald Taub, USCG Retire

    The search by USCGC Northwind in August 1975 did not locate the wreckage of USCGC Northland’s missing Grumman J2F-4 Duck with 3 men aboard, piloted by LT John Pritchard, which was lost on Nov.29,1942; because they searched in the wrong location,which had been reported by USAAF in April 1943 (perhaps due to a misunderstanding); namely on barren Pamiagdluk Peninsula. The crash location is known to have been a few miles farther west on the east side of the Koge Bay fjord; which is the location of USCG’s ongoing “Duck Hunt”. YES, USCGC Northland crewmen erected a wooden cross on the hill of Pamiagdlik peninsula. This search was inconjunction with USCGC Northwind’s summer resupply mission at nearby Kululsuk (ex-BE-2 of WW2).

  • Jay Gammill

    My father, Howard S. Gammill was the Northland’s photographer (1942-1943) and the only US Navy man on board when the J2F-4 was lost. He recounted the fact that he was in his flight gear when the Captain told him to stand down so there would be more room for the B-17 survivors. He said it was a very sad day on the Northland at the loss of LT Pritchard and Petty Officer Bottoms who were very well liked on board ship. I have several hundred pictures of the ship and crew posted on my Facebook page under Jay Gammill. There are also pictures of the aircrafts nose art if needed for identification. I have pictures of two different wooden crosses, as mentioned by Capt. Taub , only one is posted on Facebook. The inscriptions cannot be read, but because my father recorded them, one may very well be the cross that was erected by the crew. Good luck in bring home our heroes.