A few years ago I strolled onto Marconi beach to get my daily exercise. The day started out like any other and as I walked down the beach I collected shells, rocks and enjoyed the beauty of nature. After walking about a mile I spotted something on the beach that would not only change my life but the life of others. This object was a 50 caliber bullet. For most people this would be just another object to add to a beach combing collection, but I needed answers. Why was an object of such violence lying in the sand on a seemingly tranquil beach? Where did it come from? These were just some of the questions running through my head.
After returning home I turned to the Internet for help and soon learned many years ago there was a Military base called Camp Wellfleet located on the dunes not far from the Marconi site. It had long since been closed and a massive cleanup effort took place to remove any ordinance left behind. Obviously, it was impossible to remove everything and that was the reason for the bullet I found. I returned to Marconi beach days later to further my research and came up with 50 caliber shells some of which were live. I also recovered shrapnel, pennies that were dated 1942, food winders from ration cans, live 22 caliber bullets and much more.
For weeks I scoured the Internet for information about Camp Wellfleet until I found a web site that listed the names and e-mail addresses of a few men who were stationed there. I emailed all of them and one by the name of Charles Starr wrote me back. He was a wealth of information for my research. He was assigned to the 41st Gun Battalion at Fort Bliss Texas. After his arrival he was transferred to the 43rd Radio Controlled Aerial Target Detachment (RCAT). But found a more permanent home with the 41st RCAT Detachment. He said he was assigned to this division because on his enlistment papers where it said "hobbies" he had written “Building Model Airplanes'. Embarrassed at the time he almost scratched it out but now admits it was the move to the RCAT division that saved him from being killed at war. A few weeks after he left the 41st Gun Battalion they were deployed to Korea and twenty four hours later, the unit no longer existed. They suffered 96% casualties. Mr. Starr told me the unit lasted for such a short time there may not be even any record of their existence or the fact they went to Korea.
Mr, Starr was stationed in the RCAT division at Camp Wellfleet. They flew small radio controlled planes and the anti aircraft people shot them down for practice. Each RCAT plane cost $2,500 dollars with later models costing as much as $ 5,000. Most would make as many as 20 flights, some would take a direct hit to the gas tank and explode in a ball of flames, while others just flew out of radio range and crashed into the ocean. It was the stories of RCAT planes flying off in a helter skelter manner that peaked my interest. I kept wondering if any of the little RCAT planes could have flown off and crashed on land and If so could they still be lying in the woods undetected for over 60 years?. I inquired with Mr. Starr about my thoughts and he wrote me this “I doubt that you will find much, if anything, historic in the area. We were stationed there in the 40's and 50's....50 or 60 years ago....the entire beach front that I worked on has long ago gone out to sea".
I couldn't accept this as a definite answer because I had already recovered artifacts and the planes were known to fly away on occasion...... So my search began.
During the summers of 2004 and 2005 I hiked on and off through woods and swamps all while getting chewed up by ticks, misquotes and other pests. My search went on and off for about 2 years but always remained in the general area of the Marconi national Park. I had limited information and with no real sense of direction found myself hiking aimlessly. I realized that if I was going to ever succeed I needed more information and my search pattern had to be broken down into grids. But breaking down thousands of Acers into grids is not much use unless you have a general area in which to search. I put my feelers out in an attempt to gather more information, but as I thought info on the Camp was not only sparse but virtually nonexistent. The camp had literally vanished without a trace.
|
December 22nd 2006 6pm, my family and I arrived on the Cape to spend our first ever Christmas on Cape Cod. Although I was very excited about this event I was just as excited to get into the woods and look for little planes. We unpacked our bags and settled in for the night. After everyone headed off to bed I ran for the computer to map out a plan. I opened up Google earth to get another look at Camp Wellfleet from a satellite view.
The next day would be a tossup, look for little planes in the woods with no new information or head to the beach where I knew I would recover more artifacts. My mind was telling me to go to the beach where i knew i would succeed because looking for planes would be nothing more than an unproductive hike in the woods followed by a full self body exam looking for ticks. I chose the beach!!.
December 23rd 4:30am the alarm sounded and I jumped out of bed like a child on Christmas. I arrived at Marconi beach by five and after a two mile walk I was at my location. It only took a few minutes before my metal detector sounded and it wasn’t long before I had a dozen or so artifacts. I must admit it’s a great feeling every time I inserted another Camp Wellfleet artifact into my pocket. But nothing feels better than mailing these items to the men and women who served there. Out of the all the years I spent searching that beach I only have two or three artifacts actually in my collection, all the rest I have mailed to ex-military personnel that served at the camp.
I returned home by mid afternoon, cleaned, documented and stored my finds. Although thrilled with my accomplishment I was still day-dreaming of little planes….
December 24th 4am my alarm sounded and off I went to Marconi beach, but this time I was headed for planes. I knew of a few old fire roads that went deep into the woods. I figured if nothing else I would get some exercise and familiarize myself with the land, and that’s exactly what I did. By noon I was back home and exhausted. I showered and jumped in bed for a nap so I could recharge for a Christmas Eve party at my brothers house later in the evening.
December 24th 6pm we arrived at my brother’s house, he had quite the spread of food.... clams, oysters on the half shell, chili, Oysters Rockefeller and more. I quickly filled my plate and poured myself a generous rum and coke. I mingled for awhile as my brother introduced me to many of his friends and we spoke about life on the Cape among other things. It was during these conversations I heard my brother talking about his friend Jason who was an avid deer hunter. He was explaining to a group that Jason hunts the land on the Ocean side between Wellfleet and Eastham and this year he had spotted some wreckage in the woods. Not just any wreckage but the wreckage of a small plane. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing…I poured another rum and coke and took in as much information as I could. The rest of Christmas Eve was spectacular and I got the best present ever. I finally had the contact information of someone who had claimed to have seen a plane.
December 27th 2pm My Wife, kids and I headed back to NJ and I do believe she had had enough plane talk at this point. But now she was stuck in the car for 5 hours with me and had no escape from my babbling. I told her I was making plans to go back to the Cape for a long weekend to look for the wreckage. Naturally “yes” was the answer because if I succeeded the entire plane talk would finally cease…or so she thought.
I wasn’t home in N.J. for more than a few hours before I blasted an email to Jason inquiring about the wreckage he spotted. He returned my email with the following. “Yes, Steve I did see wreckage and the plane was surprisingly intact. I don’t know if I could find it again but I could point you to the general direction”. He then gave me directions and said. “It’s going to be like finding a needle in a haystack; it wasn’t very easy to spot in the woods….Good Luck.
Now, I was armed with general directions but I was quickly disappointed. After pulling out a map I realized the area he was telling me to look was over 3 miles from the RCAT launch pad. I was still going to search but found it to be highly unlikely a plane would be in this section of woods. In order for the plane to be where Jason said it was, it would have to have been the luckiest plane ever launched. (1) It had to be launched successfully, (2) not get shot down, (3) fly with no radio control in a straight line for over 3 miles, (4) not crash in the Ocean and come to rest in a small field. (5) Sit there for over 60 years undetected and somehow protected from the elements…..Impossible I thought to myself….
|
January 11th, 2pm. I left work, jumped on the highway and headed for the Cape. If all went smooth I would arrive at my parent’s house by 7pm, “if all went smooth” ……I arrived at 10. As always my parents were happy to see me but I could tell they thought I was a tad nuts. I explained to my father “you can’t succeed if you don’t try” ..... I could tell he admired what I was doing. He could see I was excited and well prepared as I pulled a hand held GPS unit from my pocket. This search wasn’t going to be like the others this time I was prepared.
. By 10pm the weather had turned and there was two inches of snow on the ground. I’ll admit I was starting to get disappointed. I remembered what Jason said about the planes being hard to spot in normal conditions and now we had snow. Not just any snow BLIZZARD conditions. I told my parents I needed sleep and turned in for the night.
January 12th 6am I woke at 6am to blizzard conditions and 16 degrees. I’ll admit I wanted to crawl back under the covers but I didn’t drive 5 hours to sleep. I geared up with layers of clothing my camera, GPS unit and grabbed a cup-o-Joe…..Off I went.
It took me about 20 minutes to find the entry point in the woods. Once there I pulled out my GPS and waited for it to make a connection with the satellites above, I then slipped into the woods. This was my first time using GPS so it took me awhile to familiarize myself with its operation. As Jason advised I followed the GPS in an N/W direction for about ½ mile, but during my walk I became confused with the GPS operation and went N/E. Way off course I found myself freezing in blizzard conditions and as stupid as it sounds LOST with a GPS unit. (I guess I should have read the directions first.) Then 3 hours into my search BEEP, BEEP, BEEP…the GPS sounded (LOW BATTERY). That’s what I get for using Christmas Tree Shop batteries, I told myself. I knew it was time to get out of the woods before the weather got worse and the batteries completely went dead.
January 12 6pm my mom made a delicious steak dinner. I told them how my search went and after walking for hours every log started to look like the fuselage of a plane. They could tell I was disappointed because I had put a lot of time and effort into the search and the weather didn’t cooperate. Not only that I had to leave the next morning and had no idea when I was going to be able to come back. After dinner I studied the manual for the GPS and turned in for the night.
January 13th 1am I popped out of bed with my mind racing. I ran to my dad’s computer with some fresh ideas and opened up Google Earth. I wanted to see if the GE program would let me break down my search area into grids. After a few key strokes I had the entire forest broken down into 1 acre plots. Within those plots there was a GPS number. Now all I had to do was pick the correct area to search. Using a measuring tool within the GE program I measured from my entry point in the woods ½ mile N/W. It then gave me exact GPS coordinates for that location. All I had to do was plug those numbers into my hand held and if Jason was correct I should be close.
January 13th 6:30am my truck was packed for the ride back to N.J., but before I headed home I wanted to search the woods for a few more hours. I entered the woods at 7am, the blizzard was over and the woods were once again peaceful. I had a good feeling, a lucky feeling, I really can’t explain it but it was as though I was being guided. I walked in a N/W direction for about ½ mile until the GPS advised me to stop. I was now in the area Jason told me to search. Not knowing what the plane would look like I began wondering around the general area. I was laughing to myself thinking it would be funny if my 1st stop with the GPS landed me on the crash site. But even if I was near it snow was everywhere and there was a real strong possibility the wreck site would be buried. I told myself I would search until about 9am then I would head back to N.J.
At 8:30 I was about to call it quits when I decided to make one last loop around the area. The stretch of woods I was searching seemed real promising and I didn’t want to leave. It was relatively free from large trees and looked as though it might have been a field at one time. Jason said the plane was in surprisingly good shape, I figured for it to be that way it must have crashed in an unobstructed area, so if long ago this was a field, it might be the area. A few more minutes passed when off in the distance I spotted what appeared to be a hollow log. As I neared I could see that it was silver and definitely man made. Then, like something out of a dream I saw the word “TARGET”. I couldn’t believe my eyes and sat there in amazement without even touching it. Out of the ground stuck the 7 foot fuselage, along with the wing, which was frozen into the ground, and must have been more than 10 feet long. It was hard to believe I was standing over the crash site of an RCAT airplane that went down some 50 years earlier. All my research and persistence had finally paid off.
After photographing the site I broke the fuselage free from its resting place and carried it back to my truck. I would have to come back for the wing at a later date, and when the ground thawed use my metal detector to find the remaining wreckage.
The little plane now sits in my garage in N.J. protected from the elements. Closer review of the wreckage revealed it was stripped of all its mechanics, engine, parachute..Etc. I later found out it was common practice for the troops to strip downed RCATS for all salvageable parts leaving just the aluminum carcass behind.
Through my research and the use of this website people can now know the Camp Wellfleet story. My ultimate goal will be to raise enough money for a small museum to be constructed on National Seashore property to display Camp Wellfleet artifacts and tell the forgotten stories of the men and women who served there.
Thanks for visiting,
Steve Klink
|
 |
| 7 foot fuselage |
|
|
 |
| wing pryed from the frozen earth |
|
|
 |
| Crash site |
|
|
 |
| This wrench was found at the RCAT crash site under a few inches of soil. Locating this tool confirmed that the plane was stripped by military personal at or shortly after the crash. |
|
|
 |
| Im 6 feet tall..."THIS WING IS HUGE" |
|
|
|
