Rescued WWII B-25 still fascinating
By Rachel Haynie

Hank and Gerry Mascall, Christmas shopping in Columbia when the young lieutenant was stationed at the Columbia Air Base, were snapped by a photographer who turned it into a postcard and sold it to them. That image is now in the Mascall family archives in Oregon.

Dr. Robert Seigler was named Lake Murray Association's Person of the Year at last week's town meeting. Dr. Seigler, head of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Greenville Hospital System's, accepted the honor for his leadership in rescuing the fabled WWII Mitchell B-25 from 150 feet of Lake Murray water. He then marked the first anniversary of the salvage event with a slide presentation on "How History Was Made at Lake Murray."

The Columbia native's part on the program began with stories of his youthful curiosity about the plane and took audience members through the arduous process he stuck with more than a decade. Seigler crunched a several decade-long timeline into 15-minutes to create a chronology characterized by bureaucratic red tape, technological advances, and right people at the right time to explain how the project ultimately succeeded.

Gerry and Hank Mascall, on their 64th anniversary Oregon, were newlyweds living in a Davis Hotel apartment when the B-25 on which Lt. Henry Mascall was flight instructor ditched in Lake Murray.

Seigler's presentation followed the rescue effort until the bomber was out of the water and onto shore. He then introduced Dr. Jim Griffin who relayed what has happened to the B-25 after its rescue.

Griffin, executive director of the Southern Museum of Flight in Birmingham, Ala., showed pictures of that institution's crew dismantling the plane at Lake Murray for its transport down I-20. His slides also conveyed the restorative work the plane has undergone since arriving safely at the Birmingham museum where it is on view to the delight of visitors.

Griffin told the audience the condition of the rescued plane would have made full restoration nearly a duplication. "To make it look like it looked in 1943, we would have had to replace more than 90 percent of the plane." As it is now, Griffin said the plane is being viewed as a time capsule. Visitors can better envision what its 60 years on the bottom of the lake did to it than they would if the plane was made to look new, Griffin explained.

Dr. Jim Griffin, executive director of the Southern Museum of Flight in Birmingham, Ala. and Keiser Gary Lee. Lee and his wife found the nose of the B-27 while diving in Lake Murray

In addition to the surprises the plane has revealed, as noted by both men, several surprises followed the twin presentations. Lake Murray artist J.J. Casey presented Seigler with an original watercolor painting, her rendition of the plane. Richard Peterson presented Griffin with a framed copy of a newspaper article in which his late aunt, Katherine Tapp, gave her late-in-life account of the plane's water landing. Tapp was the only person to witness the plane crash.

The journalist who interviewed Tapp and wrote that article, Kay Gordon, was in the audience at the association meeting. Gordon, for many years a resident of Lake Murray, writes often about the lake and its culture, and has a story on the B-25 rescue due for publication this fall. The article is set to appear in Air and Space, a Smithsonian periodical.

Dr. Robert Seigler accepts the honor from Dr. Jim Griffin for Seigler's leadership in rescuing the fabled WWII Mitchell B-25 .

Austin Moore, a long-time lake resident, brought Seigler and Griffin folders filled with clippings and other documents relevant to the plane and its history.

The biggest surprise of the evening came from Keiser Gary Lee and his wife Shannon, a couple who found the plane's nose cone while diving in Lake Murray this summer. Shannon said they had gone diving that day so Gary could try out some new gear she had given him for his birthday. The two were planning a dive out of Charleston soon after that.

Gary found how the nose cone wound up in the shallow waters a mystery. Griffin surmised the nose cone was still in tact when the plane was lifted by straps and moved to the shore. He figures the scraping action from the lake bottom pulled it loose when the plane was nearing shore.