As I prepare to depart for Germany and the realization of a lifelong dream, I invite you to accompany me virtually back where my father, 1st Lt. Shannon Eugene Estill’s P-38 fighter plane was shot down in an East German farmer’s field on 13 April 1945. In 1993, I searched for and found the remaining members of my father’s WW II squadron. My 150 “adopted” dads took me under their wings and enabled me through their loving support and wisdom to pursue this quest. I was led to Germany and Hans Guenther Ploes, a specialist in recovery of crashed WW II planes, with whom I traveled throughout Germany in search of my father’s plane. With Hans Guenther’s incredible knowledge of aircraft and crash sites in conjunction with his willingness to engage with this pilot’s daughter in finding a P-38J that crashed at the end of the war, the site was identified in March, 2003. Next week, I will meet the excavation team sent from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command from Hawaii in the field in Elsnig, Germany, a village near Torgau where the American and Russian Armies met at the end of the war in their quest to defeat Nazi Germany. My father’s life ended with this last mission. It is my intention to recover his remains and his plane, and bring him home to rest in Ar lington Cemetery and Enid, Oklahoma.
The picture of the typist, circa 1957, is me in my early career as a foreign correspondent. In this spirit, I include you in the adventure in which I am the heroine, my father is the hero. This is how you will be able to follow this journey, post your thoughts, comments, suggestions, and sentiments.
Here we go………….