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That picture, and others in the series of shots showing S-L "on her gear" with the engine cowling removed, were taken near the 4th's "Heavy Maintenance" squadron's blister hangars just south of the base, across Elder Street. A couple of the blisters are still there in use as farm storage.
Gentile was given several instruments from the plane, which I have held in my hands, and it's highly doubtful that anything else "of note" has survived. Everything else that could be reused was recycled into other planes - EVERYTHING else. The rest was hauled off to be melted down. THERE WAS AND IS NO "POND" where the 4th dumped their "junk".
From my online article, "Don Gentile's 1944 Logbook" (full text on my site):
This forever ended Don's combat days - Blakeslee almost literally kicked him out of the 4th Fighter Group, and he never again saw combat. Don was banned from flying with the 4th until he left for the States - even practice flights. Col. Blakeslee had his unbreakable rule that anybody who bent a kite "flat hatting" was out of the group for good. I asked the Colonel about this at the October 2001 4th FG reunion, and he told me that after Gentile ". . . broke the rules", either he or Blakeslee would have to leave, and, as he told me while looking straight through me with those famous gray-blue eyes, “. . . it wasn't going to be me!" Don was reportedly planning to bring Shangri-La with him to the States as a publicity tool (wouldn't it be great to be able to go to the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum and see it today?). Col. Blakeslee has commented on the matter:
. . . I've been accused of ruining his chances to be the top ace because I kicked him out of the Group. Well, it was SOP that no one would buzz up the field or do victory rolls because of the possibility of battle damage. Gentile knew that but did it anyway. People say that I knew it was Gentile when it happened. That's not true. I was over by my plane when I saw this plane coming in low. He bounced and hit the ground directly in front of the photographers who were there to film the buzz just missing them and the Operations Hut, breaking the back of the plane. They say that I said 'Gentile will never fly for me again' right at that point. I had no idea who it was. What I actually said was 'that pilot will never fly for me again'. I only found out it was Gentile later.
It was time for Gentile to go home anyway. He had been flying combat missions practically nonstop for almost two years - his first combat mission, after RAF "Clobber College" training, was in June 1942 with the RAF's 133 (Eagle) Squadron. He had requested and received time-extensions to his combat tour three times already. The wreck was carted off to the blister hangars of the 4th's 45th Air Engineering "Heavy Maintenance" Squadron, located immediately south of the base and over approximately a three week period was slowly stripped of all usable parts.
The Heavy Maintenance hangars were where they did major repair work and refitting. Nobody remembers or knows for sure if there was anything tangible left of Shangri-La after the stripping. Rumors have circulated for years that the remains were bulldozed into a pond or ravine, but there is absolutely no evidence of this. In fact, at the 2001 4th Fighter Group reunion in Savannah, Georgia, I personally talked to several mechanics who worked in the 45th Air Engineering "Heavy Maintenance" Squadron about this very subject, and they remembered Shangri-La well - and how she was stripped of all usable parts, but none of them recall any kind of pond or ravine or anywhere where the 4th dumped their "junk" - and these men would be the ones to know! They don't recall throwing anything away. Their recollection is that their Sergeant in charge kept everything for possible use in aircraft repair work. Finally, I talked to Edward Tetlow, former owner of "the pond in question" (there is one on his property, which I saw myself - it's big enough for maybe ONE plane), and he left no doubt that, ". . . there's nothing here." I'm sure the rumors will continue, though!
Wade
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