the historical find!

[bangorguy]

hi all. i think this is just about the most important find i have ever made, me and the wife went into the woods where we have found some collar disk's in the past. well i started detecting and got a broken signal so i brushed away the dirt as i could see what it was. we thought it was just an old license plate so i put it in my bag, and when we got home i cleaned it up and it read "langley field" "1161" and the date of 1941. well i did a bit of research and found that langley field is a historic air force base in Virginia. and found that the plate was from a B-18-A bomber that crashed here near Bangor, Me., Nov. 18 1941 so my wife called the local air national guard and they put her through to the commander of milatery police, and he told her that it was from a crashed plane in 1941 he also said he wanted us to bring the plate to the command post, and it will go to the commander of the wing museum. also said that the air national guard goes to the site of the crash every year to hold a memorial for the airmen that died. http://www3.gendisasters.com/maine/12909/bangor-me-near-bomber-crash-nov-1941

 

[Dan32981]

Awesome find man, and love the history behind it, as im active duty Navy. Keep up the great posts! And happy dirt fishing!

-Dan

 

[bangorguy]

hi all, i am very sorry about the mistaken information i gave about the plate, we called the air base back and said that it is in fact a licence plate from a langley feild vehicle from 1941, and they still want to see it, as they don't know how it got there.i am going to take it in to them on monday. i will keep you all posted.and agine my sincere apologies to everyone, and thank you for the great research on the plate, as the guy on the phone we talked with gave us the wrong info. thanks everyone. "god bless" ben.

 

[sneaky6]

Banner all the way!!!

Sneaky6

 

[Mackaydon]

Bangor:
Whether the artifact was in the possession of one of the deceased airmen, a part of the plane that crashed or off one of the vehicles involved in the initial crash response doesn't matter a hoot. What you found is a piece of history--and all facets of that history (the airmen, the aircraft and the event of that day) are symbolized by the one artifact you found.
You have nothing to apologize for; you simply clarified misinformation.
Again, great find!!
Don.......

 

[lucky d]

cool find bangor!...don't forget to stop in at the pilots grill and have some lunch....last time i was there was when my buddy returned from "desert storm"....they stopped in bangor before heading to n.c.....hh

 

[bangorguy]

hello, everyone wow has it been a hot one here in maine. thank you "mackaydon" i am still pretty excited about finding it. don it's people like you and all the others here that make this site so good. i almost feel like family here as i talk to so many of you everyday. i am disabled and have found that metal detecting has been one of the greatest things for me to do. and i love this site and all the friends i have made here. hi "luckyd" i haven't been to the pilots grill in a long time. they have some realy good food there. i think i will take the wife out for dinner there next week. let your buddy know we appreciate his service to our country, and thank god he came home from "desert storm" well everybody have fun and good luck swingin the coil. "god bless" ben.

 

[bangorguy]

just a quick follow up on the langley field plate find, we finally got the plate to them today, we talked with a sargent bragdon, and she went and got a Colonel then the Colonel went and got a general and he asked where we found it, so we told him, and we also told him we did not know what kind of plate it was. then the general said it must have came off one of the recovery vehicles that came from langley air force base in 1941 to help in the recovery of the plane, and possibly the deceased bodys of the airmen, he also said he could not get into the rest of the recovery as it was classified information. and he was passing the plate and the info we gave him to the wing museum people, and they would contact us when and if they find out anything more. one guy that was there said it was strange cause a vehicle plate normally only had two digits back then, and the plate i found has four digits witch was "1161" they also told us that where we were detecting was used as military housing in ww2 but it seems to me that would put some kind of link to it. i will keep you all posted if we hear anything more. thanks everybody. "god bless" ben.