Newsroom
KSL Podcasts presents "Bomber Down" Part 1
Producer Feliks Banel tells the story of a 57-year-old cold case from the Cold War and the bold plan to finally solve it.
Click here to listen to/read episode 1
Search Begins Again for B-52 Bomber, Mansfield Native That Vanished in 1968
Mansfield News Journal: February 7, 2025
A nonprofit group hopes to recover the bodies of eight men who were lost when a B-52 bomber vanished in 1968.
One of the crew members who went missing nearly 57 years ago this month was a Mansfield native, U.S. Air Force Maj. Philip F. Strine.
The U.S. Air Force formally called off search efforts and abandoned its investigation March 8, 1968.
The only trace of the bomber was a piece of the wreckage stamped with the plane's identification number, according to a 1968 News Journal article.
The group, Project Recover, wants to bring closure to Strine's family members — and prompt action by the Department of Defense to retrieve the men and the plane. Project Recover engages in recovery actions at crash sites around the world and is partnering with B-52 Bomber Down, a volunteer group, to find the plane.
Strine graduated from Mansfield Senior High School in 1953 and Miami University in 1957. He was employed for a short time at the Diamond Match Co. in Middletown before entering the Air Force.
Tragedy on Feb. 28, 1968
"Air, Sea Search Pushed for B-52," the News Journal declared in a March 1, 1968 headline.
"Mr. and Mrs. M.A. Strine are quietly waiting at their home, 45 Helen Ave., for news of their son, who is one of eight men aboard an Air Force B-52 bomber missing in the Gulf of Mexico."
Maj. Philip F. Strine, 31, was the instructor-pilot of the plane which disappeared Feb. 28, 1968 while flying a practice bombing mission over the Gulf, not far from the Texas coast. His duty on the mission was to evaluate the crew's performance. Strine went missing along with Frank Salavarria, Charlie Roberts, Tom Childs, John Pantilla, Mike Carroll, Bill Causey and Kermit Casey.
Five of the eight aircrew members participated in Operation ARC LIGHT, the first use of the B-52 bomber during the Vietnam conflict. Three of those six (Salavarria, Roberts and Casey) had participated in the first B-52 strike mission of that operation on June 18, 1965. All five Operation ARC LIGHT participants had been awarded the Air Medal. Pantilla had received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Force's highest formal recognition for heroism during aerial flight.
"Late in the afternoon of 28 February 1968, and while making final preparations for their training flight that night, 9th Bomb Squadron crew E-07 was joined at base operations by two evaluators from 20th Bomb Squadron crew s-63," Project Recover noted. "The evaluators' purpose for flying that night was to conduct a no-notice test of crew E-07's Cold War combat readiness."
The eight aircrew members were stationed at the now-closed Carswell Air Force Base near Fort Worth, Texas. They were all members of the 7th Bomb Wing. Each airman was married with children.
Military search included entire Gulf of Mexico and beyond
A massive air and sea search continued for the bomber, according to the News Journal. The Coast Guard in New Orleans said 31 aircraft, three sea vessels and several helicopters concentrated the search in the Matagorda Bay area.
Flares were reported sighted about 35 miles south of Sabin Pass (on the Texas-Louisiana border), but a Coast Guard spokesman told News Journal reporter Ed Kenyon a cutter found no sign of life in the area.
The searchers scoured the entire Gulf of Mexico and the surrounding U.S. landmass, along with high-altitude surveillance overflights of Cuba, Central and South America and the Caribbean. Every runway capable of landing a B-52 was surveilled. In the days after the plane's disappearance, it was reported that "no evidence of the plane or the men has been spotted."
Project Recover plans to bring MIAs home in 2025
After a six-year forensic analysis of the disappearance, Project Recover "now knows the most-probable location of the aircrew's current resting place," which they say is near Matagorda Island, Texas. "For this ambitious undertaking, Project Recover will employ their decades of success-in-the-field experience and the world's most sophisticated sonar technologies in hopes of finally locating the aircraft," said Cliff Sjolund Jr., who leads B-52 Bomber Down.
Sjolund, a 26-year-veteran of the U.S. Air Force, served as a B-52 instructor, evaluator pilot, war planner, college professor, vice wing commander, aircraft crash investigator and inspector general.
He learned of the disappearance after commanding the same B-52 squadron in which two members of the missing aircrew served 24 years earlier.
Sjolund's objective was simple: Give surviving family members the closure that senior Air Force officials couldn't when they closed the book on the disappearance March 9, 1968.
"When we find it, then we can go to the Department of Defense," said retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. J.D. Rudman, a B-52 Bomber Down member.
"Specific timing will depend on securing heavy equipment rental and seagoing support, as well as avoiding hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico," Rudman said. "The effort is expected to take 3-4 weeks. That means an execution date of before July of this year, or after October."
Fundraising efforts are ongoing to raise the $500,000 needed from individual, corporate and charitable groups, Rudman said. Sjolund said the group is three weeks into its campaign and has raised more than $82,000.
B-52 Bomber Down rekindled interest in this specific case: The group collected and analyzed publicly available information and interviewed spouses and family members to determine the most likely position in the Gulf of Mexico where the missing B-52 is located.
For more information and to donate, the organization's website is: http://b52bomberdown.org
419-521-7223
X: @lwhitmir
.jpeg/:/cr=t:0%25,l:7.54%25,w:84.92%25,h:84.92%25/rs=w:600,cg:true,m)
Project Recover Announces Partnership with Investigative team "B-52 Bomber Down"
News Release
Bend Oregon
December 20, 2024
Project Recover is a collaborative effort to enlist 21st-century science and technology in a quest to find and repatriate Americans missing in action (MIA) since World War II in order to provide recognition and closure for families and the Nation.
Project Recover recently expanded its interpretation of "MIA" to include Americans lost during non-combat operations to broaden their mission of "keeping America's promise." Said Project Recover president Derek Abbey, "This expansion was important to us because the families of those lost in combat and in peacetime operations grieve and seek closure in exactly the same ways."
In their first effort to locate a peacetime aircraft loss, Project Recover has partnered with the investigative team B-52 Bomber Down in what the former is calling their "Texas B-52 Mission." This priority mission will focus on searching for the US Air Force B-52F bomber and aircrew gone missing during a Cold War training mission over the Gulf of Mexico on 28 February 1968.