Lost in Shangri-la

by Mitchell Zuckoff

  Not everyone appreciated the attention lavished on Margaret. The mother of the Gremlin Special copilot, Major George Nicholson, lodged a complaint with the U.S. Army. “She developed a lot of resentment toward Margaret Hastings,” said John McCarthy, George Nicholson’s first cousin, once removed. Margaret Nicholson apparently feared that her son would be blamed for the crash. In response to one of her letters, a colonel in the War Department’s Public Relations office wrote: “I have the deepest sympathy for your bereavement, and I can well understand your concern that nothing be published that would tend to minimize the sacrifice made by your gallant son. You can be sure that anything which would be of this nature would be disapproved for publication.” Nicholson’s wife, Alice Nicholson, asked to speak directly with Margaret, but Margaret declined. John McCarthy explained: “My great aunt Alice said, ‘Do you refuse to see your commander’s wife?’ Margaret Hastings replied, ‘I refuse to see my commander’s widow.’ ”

  The criticism added to Margaret’s growing disenchantment with fame. She didn’t consider herself a hero, just a fortunate survivor, and she longed for her old routines. Her wish came true when movie plans fizzled. “The war ended and they were overwhelmed with war stories,” said Margaret’s sister, Rita Callahan. “Once they wanted to make a B movie and she wouldn’t sign up for it.”

  A year after the snatch, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times found Margaret living contentedly on McMaster Street. “Almost any morning, she can be seen in faded GI pants and shirt, sweeping and dusting inside the green frame house that she shares with her father,” he wrote. “Margaret is not writing a book about her experiences. She has no movie ambitions. She signs no testimonials for canned goods, cigarettes or camping equipment. The biggest thing in her life right now is a plan—to go to Syracuse University for a degree.”

  Margaret spent more than two years at Syracuse, but left without graduating. She married Robert Atkinson, whom her sister Rita described as a former Olympic bobsledder turned insurance salesman. They had a son, but separated when Margaret was pregnant a second time, with a daughter. They divorced and Margaret raised her children on her own, in Rome, New York, where she worked an administrative job on the Griffiss Air Force Base. Now and then, reporters sought her out, most often on anniversaries of the crash. They also called when Michael Rockefeller, the son of New York’s governor and scion of the storied family, disappeared in New Guinea. “He’d have an excellent chance of surviving, if he didn’t drown,” she told them.

  The survivors, pilots, paratroopers, and, in Margaret’s lap, Peggy the pig, after the rescue from Shangri-La. (Missing: Ken Decker, who was being treated for his injuries when the photo was taken.) (Photo courtesy of C. Earl Walter Jr.)

  Margaret’s last public appearance as the “Queen of Shangri-La” came in 1974, when she, McCollom, and Decker became honorary members of the National World War II Glider Pilots Association. Three decades after their ordeal, the three survivors embraced, laughed, and reminisced during a reunion at the glider pilots’ convention that year. During brief remarks, Margaret described a lesson she carried with her from the valley. “Fear is something I don’t think you experience unless you have a choice. If you have a choice, then you’re liable to be afraid. But without a choice, what is there to be afraid of? You just go along doing what has to be done.”

  Someone asked Margaret if she’d like to return to New Guinea. Without hesitating, she answered, “You bet!”

  She never made it. Four years later, Margaret was diagnosed with uterine cancer. “She put up a good fight,” her sister said. “She never felt sorry for herself. When she knew she was going to lose, she took herself off treatments and came home.”

  Margaret Hastings died in November 1978 at sixty-four. She is buried next to her parents, in a pretty little cemetery dotted with American flags, a short walk from McMaster Street.

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  (In Alphabetical Order)

  SANTIAGO “SANDY” ABRENICA—Master sergeant in U.S. Army 1st Reconnaissance Battalion (Special). Right-hand man to Captain C. Earl Walter Jr.

  CUSTODIO ALERTA—Corporal in the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion (Special). Volunteered for rescue mission following Gremlin Special crash.

  G. REYNOLDS ALLEN—Captain in the U.S. Army Air Forces and a pilot of the Waco glider dubbed the Fanless Faggot.

  RICHARD ARCHBOLD—Biological researcher and sponsor/organizer of the 1938 expedition that “discovered” the New Guinea valley later nicknamed “Shangri-La.”

  WILLIAM D. BAKER—Captain in Army Air Forces and pilot of B-17 search plane that spotted the survivors in the jungle clearing.

  ALFRED BAYLON—Sergeant in the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion (Special). Volunteered for rescue mission following Gremlin Special crash.

  LAURA BESLEY—Sergeant in the Women’s Army Corps from Shippenville, Pennsylvania. Passenger aboard the Gremlin Special. Close friend of Margaret Hastings.

  BENJAMIN “DOC” BULATAO—Sergeant in 1st Reconnaissance Battalion (Special). Lead medic in volunteer rescue mission following Gremlin Special crash.

  ALEXANDER CANN—Canadian-born filmmaker for the Netherlands Indies Government Information Service. Former Hollywood actor and failed jewel thief.

  HERMENEGILDO CAOILI—Sergeant in the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion (Special). Volunteered for rescue mission following Gremlin Special crash.

  KENNETH DECKER—Tech sergeant from Kelso, Washington, who worked as a draftsman in the engineering department of the Far East Air Service Command. Passenger aboard the Gremlin Special.

  FERNANDO DONGALLO—Sergeant in the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion (Special). Volunteered for rescue mission following Gremlin Special crash.

  RAY T. ELSMORE—Colonel and commander of the 322nd Troop Carrier Wing of the U.S. Army Air Forces. Confirmed Major Myron Grimes’s report of a large valley in central New Guinea and subsequently became the U.S. military’s leading authority on the region. Directed rescue operations following Gremlin Special crash.

  WALTER “WALLY” FLEMING—Army sergeant based in Hollandia, New Guinea, and sometime boyfriend of Margaret Hastings.

  GEORGE GARDNER—Major in the U.S. Army Air Forces who supervised supply runs to the Gremlin Special survivors.

  HERBERT F. GOOD—Army captain from Dayton, Ohio. Passenger aboard the Gremlin Special.

  MYRON GRIMES—Major in the Army Air Forces who was the first U.S. military pilot to “discover” the New Guinea valley later nicknamed “Shangri-La.”

  JACK GUTZEIT—Sergeant and radioman on C-47 search and supply plane known as the 311, following the Gremlin Special crash.

  ELEANOR HANNA—Private from Montoursville, Pennsylvania, in the Women’s Army Corps. Passenger aboard the Gremlin Special.

  MARGARET HASTINGS—Corporal from Owego, New York, in the Women’s Army Corps. Secretary to Colonel Peter Prossen, close friend of Laura Besley. Passenger aboard the Gremlin Special.

  PATRICK HASTINGS—Widowed father of Margaret Hastings. Foreman in shoe factory in Owego, New York.

  EDWARD T. IMPARATO—Colonel in the U.S. Army Air Forces and pilot of plane that dropped C. Earl Walter Jr.’s paratrooper team into Shangri-La.

  JUAN “JOHNNY” JAVONILLO—Sergeant in the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion (Special). Volunteered for rescue mission following Gremlin Special crash.

  HELEN KENT—Sergeant from Taft, California, in Women’s Army Corps. Passenger aboard the Gremlin Special.

  GEORGE LAIT AND HARRY E. PATTERSON—War correspondents who flew over the New Guinea valley with Colonel Ray T. Elsmore and coined the nickname “Shangri-La.”

  YALI LOGO—Leader of the Logo-Mabel clan who plotted to murder the Gremlin Special survivors.

  JOHN AND ROBERT MCCOLLOM—Twin brothers from Trenton, Missouri, both lieutenants in the maintenance section of the Far East Air Service Command. Passengers aboard the Gremlin Special.

  WILLIAM G. MCKENZIE—Captain in the U.S. Army Air Forces, from La Crosse, Wisconsin. Copilot to Major
William J. Samuels in glider snatch plane.

  HERBERT O. MENGEL—Captain in the U.S. Army Air Forces, from St. Petersburg, Florida, and pilot of the 311 supply plane.

  MELVIN MOLLBERG—Private in the Army Air Forces, from Baudette, Minnesota. Assistant engineer on the Gremlin Special. Joined the crew as a favor to his best friend, Corporal James “Jimmy” Lutgring, who didn’t want to fly with Colonel Peter Prossen.

  RALPH MORTON—War correspondent for The Associated Press who led coverage of the Gremlin Special crash, along with Walter Simmons of the Chicago Tribune.

  GEORGE H. NICHOLSON JR.—Major in the Army Air Forces, from Medford, Massachusetts. Copilot on the Gremlin Special.

  HENRY E. PALMER—Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Forces, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. A glider pilot aboard the Fanless Faggot.

  PETER J. PROSSEN—Colonel in the Army Air Forces, from San Antonio, Texas. Chief of the maintenance section of the Far East Air Service Command in Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea. Pilot of the Gremlin Special.

  CAMILO “RAMMY” RAMIREZ—Corporal in the U.S. Army’s 1st Reconnaissance Battalion (Special). Volunteer medic in rescue mission following Gremlin Special crash.

  DON RUIZ—Sergeant in the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion (Special). Volunteered for rescue mission following Gremlin Special crash.

  WILLIAM J. SAMUELS—Major in the U.S. Army Air Forces and commander of the 33rd Troop Carrier Squadron, from Decatur, Illinois. The most experienced U.S. pilot in the Southwest Pacific in “snatching” gliders from the ground into the air.

  WALTER SIMMONS—War correspondent for the Chicago Tribune who led coverage of the Gremlin Special crash, along with Associated Press reporter Ralph Morton.

  ROQUE VELASCO—Sergeant in the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion (Special). Volunteered for rescue mission following Gremlin Special crash.

  C. EARL WALTER JR.—Captain in the U.S. Army’s 1st Reconnaissance Battalion (Special), from Portland, Oregon. Was awaiting a combat posting with his Filipino-American paratroopers when he volunteered to lead the rescue mission into Shangri-La.

  WIMAYUK WANDIK—Known to the Gremlin Special survivors as “Pete,” a leader of the native village of Uwambo.

  Additional Passengers and Crew Killed in the May 13, 1945, Crash of the Gremlin Special:

  Major Herman F. Antonini of Danville, Illinois; Major Phillip J. Dattilo of Louisville, Kentucky; Private Alethia M. Fair of Hollywood, California; Captain Louis E. Freyman of Hammond, Indiana; Private Marian Gillis of Los Angeles; First Lieutenant Lawrence F. Holding of Raleigh, North Carolina; Private Mary M. Landau of Brooklyn, New York; Sergeant Marion W. McMonagle of Philadelphia; Corporal Charles R. Miller of Saint Joseph, Michigan; Sergeant Belle Naimer of the Bronx, New York; Private George R. Newcomer of Middletown, New York; Sergeant Hilliard Norris of Waynesville, North Carolina; and Corporal Melvyn Weber of Compton, California.

  NOTES ON SOURCES AND METHODS

  This is a work of nonfiction. No liberties have been taken with facts, dialogue, characters, or chronology. All quoted material comes from interviews, reports, diaries, letters, flight logs, declassified military documents, news stories, books, or some other source cited in the notes below. Descriptions of people and places are based on site visits, interviews, written materials, photographs, and newsreel images. Unless noted, the author conducted all interviews, either in person or by phone. Interviews with natives of the Baliem Valley, or Shangri-La, were translated by Buzz Maxey, an American missionary relief and development manager who has lived there most of his life.

  Abbreviations of key source materials:

  IDPF—Individual Deceased Personnel File, an official U.S. Army document generally running more than one hundred pages, detailing the circumstances of death, recovery and identification of remains, dispersal of belongings, and burial. IDPFs for nineteen of the Gremlin Special victims were obtained using the Freedom of Information Act. Army officials said they could not locate files for Laura Besley and Louis Freyman.

  CEW—C. Earl Walter Jr.’s daily journal, which he wrote during his weeks in Shangri-La. Walter granted permission for its use here. Much of the journal was reproduced by Colonel Edward T. Imparato in Rescue from Shangri-La (Paducah, Ky.: Turner Publishing, 1997).

  MACR—Missing Air Crash Report No. 14697, the declassified U.S. Army Air Forces account of the incident, including survivors’ sworn statements taken upon their return to Hollandia; the names, ranks, and home addresses of the victims; a map showing the crash location; and an official account of the flight, the crash, and the search and rescue.

  SLD—“Shangri-La Diary” is an account of the crash and rescue written by Margaret Hastings in secretarial shorthand while in the valley. Inez Robb of the International News Service helped to expand it into a serial distributed to newspapers in the summer of 1945. Reader’s Digest published a condensed version in December 1945. Tioga County historian Emma Sedore transcribed the version of the diary used here. In an unaired interview with documentary filmmaker Robert Gardner, John McCollom vouched for its accuracy. C. Earl Walter Jr. agreed, with one exception: he denied singing “Shoo, Shoo Baby” as he entered the survivors’ camp. However, in a joint interview in 1998, McCollom insisted that it was true, and Walter relented. Walter acknowledged as much to the author. Walter’s initial denial might be traced to the ribbing he took from friends and family about singing in the jungle.

  TCHS—Tioga County Historical Society, in Owego, N.Y., which preserved Margaret Hastings’s personal scrapbook, letters, telegrams, photographs, and other materials.

  NOTES

  The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a sourced passage, please use the search function of your eBook reader.

  1. MISSING

  1 On a rainy day: National Severe Storms Laboratory Historical Weather Data Archives, Norman, Oklahoma, http://data.nssl.noaa.gov (retrieved October 17, 2009).

  1 a green, farm-style house: Description comes from author’s interviews with Margaret Hastings’s sister Rita Hastings Callahan, August 1, 2009, and childhood friend Mary Scanlon, August 2, 2009, and also from the author’s visits to Owego, N.Y.

  1 in a front window: Callahan, interview.

  1 grew up a farm boy: Ibid.

  2 visible signs of her absence: Ibid.

  2 walked into a recruiting station: Margaret Hastings’s enlistment records at NARA.

  3 the combat death toll: U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs Fact Sheet, dated November 2008, www1.va.gov/opa/fact/amwars.asp (retrieved January 27, 2010).

  3 messengers fanned out across the country: Hometowns of crash victims’ families were contained in the declassified Army Air Force account of the crash, MACR.

  3 THE SECRETARY OF WAR DESIRES: Telegram located in archives at TCHS. The original had no punctuation, which was added here for readability, and abbreviated the word corporal.

  3 most recent letter home: “Owego WAC, Reported Missing, Is Safe,” news clipping in Margaret Hastings’s personal scrapbook, TCHS. Story described Margaret Hastings’s most recent letter and her family’s hope that she would be found alive.

  4 Margaret is missing: Callahan, interview.

  2. HOLLANDIA

  5 “fit me like sacks”: Margaret Hastings to Verna Smith, published as “Owego WAC Writes of Her Life in New Guinea,” Owego Gazette, March 8, 1945.

  6 usual 5:30 a.m. reveille: Details of Margaret Hastings’s daily routine in New Guinea are contained in SLD, part 2. See also Hastings, “Owego WAC Writes.”

  6 just under five-foot-two: Margaret Hastings, SLD, part 11. Margaret notes her height in comparison with the native women, pleasantly surprised that they are shorter than her “five-feet, one-and-one-half inches.”

  6 teenage nickname: Owego Free Academy Tom-Tom Yearbook, 1932, p. 18, TCHS.

  6 hitchhiked when she wanted: Scanlon, interview.

  6 “drank liquor,” “liked the boys”: Margaret Hastings, “A Tribute to Mother,�
�� undated college paper in correspondence file, TCHS.

  6 average marrying age for women: U.S. Census Bureau, “America’s Family and Living Arrangements,” in Current Population Survey: Annual Social and Economic Supplement, 2003, table MS-2, “Estimated Median Age at First Marriage, by Sex, 1890–Present,” Current Population Report ser. P20-553 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2003).

  7 “To tell the truth”: James R. Miller, “Reconversion of a Heroine,” Los Angeles Times Magazine, July 7, 1946, p. 5.

  7 more exciting than Atlantic City: Hastings, SLD, part 1.

  7 “blood, toil, tears and sweat”: John Lukacs, Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: The Dire Warning; Churchill’s First Speech as Prime Minister (New York: Basic Books, 2008), p. 11.

  7 “The western world has been freed”: Harry S. Truman, transcript of speech announcing the surrender of Germany, found at Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3340 (retrieved January 3, 2010).