All language subtitles for Expedition.Unknown.S14E06.en

May 30th, 1945,

just weeks after
Germany's surrender.

In the Pacific,
World War II rages on

and Allied forces
are on the move.

Here, at the US Army Air Base
in the city of Accra
in West Africa,

Americans are being
transported to new assignments
in Europe.

But these are not
your average soldiers.

They're members
of the Women's Army Corps,
or WAC for short.

And the WACs aren't just
breaking glass ceilings,

they're shattering them

as trailblazers
serving alongside
their male counterparts

to stop Hitler and defeat
the Axis powers.

These WACs are specialists
working for
Air Transport Command.

They manage
air traffic control,

weather forecasting
and other vital logistics.

By all accounts,
this should be
a routine flight.

After all, the Douglas C-47
Skytrain here

is a dependable workhorse
for the Allies.

The weather is clear
and the route ahead
is well traveled.

But this particular flight
will be anything but ordinary.

That's because nobody aboard
will make it
to their intended destination.

Shortly after takeoff...

...something goes
terribly wrong.

Without warning,
the plane careens
at a sharp angle...

...and pitches toward
the ocean below.

And then, silence.

Locals on a remote peninsula
on the Ivory Coast

claimed to see the plane
crashing into the ocean.

US forces will conduct
a thorough search,

but no wreckage will be found.

No bodies recovered.

Even the story
is destined to disappear,

fading from headline news
to be all but forgotten.

The WACs
and their three-man crew

will be listed
as Missing In Action.

In fact, of the 27 American
World War II servicewomen
who are MIA,

18 of them are from this
single crash.

The cause
of this terrible crash
and the fate of those aboard

is a mystery that demands
to be remembered
and investigated.

Can dedicated researchers
uncover the true location
of the accident?

Could technology
image the remains
of the sunken wreck?

And most importantly,

can these missing
American heroes be found
and brought home?

Only time will tell.

The past is all around us.

Oh, this is crazy.

A world of mystery.

-This is a plane.
-Yeah. [laughs]

[Josh Gates] Danger.

We are about to be underwater.

Whoa!

And adventure.

It's just straight down!

[vocalizes]

I travel to the far corners
of the earth

to uncover
where legends end...

Yeah! [laughs]

...and history begins.

Okay, let's punch it.

I'm Josh Gates, and this
is Expedition Unknown.

My mission begins
at the US Army's
Fort Gregg-Adams

a few hours south of DC.

Once on base,
I make my way over
to a one-of-a-kind museum,

which chronicle
the long history

of women's service
in our military.

Tracy.

-Hi, Josh. Nice to meet you.
-Nice to meet you, too.

Welcome to the United States
Army Women's Museum.

I am thrilled to be here, uh,
because I have a lot to learn.

And I think a lot of people
don't know enough about
the Women's Army Corps.

So tell me, who were the WACs?

So the WACs
were the first women

to serve in the Army
with full military status.

-Okay.
-[Tracy Bradford]
It's an amazing story.

But I think,
to understand the WACs,

we need to go back
to the beginning,
to the American Revolution.

So let's head this way.

Let's go all the way back.
Come on.

[Tracy] Really,
since the birth of the Army
in 1775,

women have been
finding ways to serve.

And so in those early days,
how are they serving?

They're serving
in very logistical roles,

important work for the Army.

They're serving
as laundresses.

They're serving as cooks.
As nurses. They're foraging.

-Then we see a big change
around World War I.
-Okay.

A great example
is the "Hello Girls."

[Josh] The "Hello Girls" were
French-speaking American women

brought overseas
to help with communications
during World War I.

It was the first time
women had been used
in forward service.

That's really gonna
lay the groundwork

for what's gonna happen
in World War II
with our Women's Army Corps.

[reporter]
American woman power

is a reserve
that can win this war.

[Josh] The Women's Army Corps
was founded in 1942
five months after Pearl Harbor

to bolster the war effort
by enlisting women
to work as cooks,

drivers, and offer
communications
and medical support.

The original call goes out
for 1,000 WACs,

and over 30,000 women apply.

-So right out of the gate,
30,000 women apply to this.
-[Tracy] Yes.

And the numbers
are gonna grow exponentially
throughout the war.

[Josh] Seeing these women
in these uniforms

strikes kind of
an emotional note for me.

My grandmother,
who was British,

served in the UK equivalent
of this,
the Women's Royal Army Corps.

And we have this photo
of her in uniform,

and during the 40s in the UK
she was doing transfusions
for soldiers

and supporting the war effort.

And the British women
were actually an inspiration

for what was gonna happen
in America.

Much of the Women's Army Corps
was replicated

on the service of women
like your grandmother.

There we go.
Nice work, Grammy.

-Appreciate it. Grammy. Yeah.
-Grammy. Yeah.

Good job, Grammy.
All right. That's amazing.

That is incredible to hear.

Over the course of the war,

150,000 WACS were stationed
all over the world,

from Europe to Africa
to the Manhattan Project.

It was at the Accra Air Base
in what is now Ghana,

that the 18 WACs
were stationed

before their doomed flight
to London.

So, Josh,
welcome to the archives.

[Josh] Wow, look at all
of this material.
This is incredible.

This is the official
WAC archive of the crash

and the women who tragically
perished in it.

-May I?
-Yes, please.

So, we've got
literal headline news here.

Army Plane, 18 WACS Lost.

18 WACs Missing
on Plane Trip in Africa.

Air and surface craft
are searching
for a missing plane

carrying 18 WACs
and a crew of three.

The WACs are the first
ever reported lost overseas.

This must have been
a seismic event
for the Women's Army Corps.

It really was. It was
the largest loss of life

for the Women's Army Corps,
all in one event.

This was national news,

as well as news
in all of the hometowns
of these women.

And yet so few people
know this story today.

Right, I agree.

But we have to remember
that there was
a lot going on still

at this time in the war.

So Germany
had just surrendered,

but we had a big fight
left in the Pacific.

[Josh]
With Germany's surrender,

the WACs had the opportunity
to go home,

but many chose to stay on
to support
a devastated Europe,

or be redeployed
to assignments in the Pacific.

The fateful flight in question
was scheduled to travel
from Accra Base,

with refueling
and personnel stops
in Liberia, Senegal,

Morocco and France
before heading to the UK.

There were four C-47 aircraft
leaving the base,

but only three of them
made it.

Are these photos of the women
from the crash?

Yes. In fact, here we have,
um, the majority
of Squadron D

-stationed in Accra.
-[Josh] Wow.

So these are all the women
that are stationed over there.

So presumably, the 18 WACs
who died in this one crash
are in this photo.

-[Tracy] Yes.
-[Josh] Wow.

So we have here
Corporal Velma H. Holden,

and her colleagues
Private Flossie Flannery.

-That is the greatest
name ever. I love that.
-[Tracy chuckles]

Doris Cooper,
and Frieda Friend
was on the plane.

Right, so PFC Frieda Friend
and her husband
got married in the States.

He ends up being stationed
in Accra.

And then later,
she's sent to Accra,
so they were there together.

And then she was on this plane
that ended up crashing
on the way to London,

And he found out about it
back on the base.

-Yes, he did.
-Wow, that's just terrible.

And her colleague
is Helen F. Rozzelle,

who joined the WAC
to take the place
of a brother,

Lieutenant Richard Rozzelle,

a pilot whose plane
was shot down
off of Italy in '43.

So she's serving
because she has a brother
who's already been lost.

[Tracy] Exactly.
So she actually does enlist

after her brother
is Missing In Action.

-So currently, they are both
on the MIA register.
-[Josh] Wow.

And who's this?

[Tracy] So this is actually
Helen Rozzelle here
And Odessa Hollingsworth,

two of the women
who were killed
in the plane crash.

Look at these two women
just hanging out
on the beach in West Africa.

What a cool photo this is.

[Tracy] So there
are trailblazers

-and that there are women
in the Army.
-[Josh] Yeah.

They're serving their nation
and they're also
on a great adventure.

[Josh] That's right.

And as to this plane,
it really just seems like

it vanishes
off the face of the earth.

You look at the news report,
and it says the plane was
last reported

over British West Africa,
about 150 miles west of Accra,

and then nothing.

So they had a normal takeoff.

They... they did
their first check in

and then there was
a frantic mayday call.

But in the mayday,
the pilot doesn't say
what's happening.

Does not identify the problem.

So then a major
search-and-rescue operation
is launched,

and it goes on
for over a week.

They send out planes.
They send out ships.

They found absolutely nothing.
No human remains. No debris.

So it is a true mystery.

And a mystery
I hope that can be solved.

And we hope so, too.
This is an important story.

And we would be very happy
to bring resolution
and recognition

to the service of these women.

[Josh] To assist
in that effort, I travel west.

I need to understand
what I'm hunting for...

...by getting my eyes
on a C-47,

or better yet, flying in one.

That's veteran pilot
Mike Nightengale.

In the co-pilot seat
is Steve Rose.

You can't make these names up.

In the navigator seat
behind them is me.

And we're aboard one
of the most famous aircraft
models in history, the C-47.

Nicknamed "The Gooney Bird,"

almost 10,000 of these
were built during
World War II.

This one rolled off
the production line
in March of 1945,

just two months
before the crash
I'm investigating.

We're in the desert outside
of Palm Springs, California,

and in a moment,
this £25,000 antique

is hopefully gonna
get airborne.

Buckle up.

[Mike Nightengale speaking]

My iPhone.

[laughs]

Powered by two massive
Pratt and Whitney
air-cooled engines,

providing 2,400 horsepower,

the C-47 is no puddle jumper.

With a wingspan
of nearly 100 feet,

she could carry
28 fully-equipped paratroopers

or up to £10,000 of cargo.

The C-47 served
all over the globe
during the war,

including at Normandy
on D-Day.

General Eisenhower himself
singled it out as one
of our most valuable assets.

[Josh] I'm flying
in a vintage C-47

over the deserts
of Palm Springs, California.

A plane nearly identical
to this one

crashed into the ocean
off West Africa in 1945,

carrying 18 members
of the Women's Army Corps.

Now, pilots Mike Nightengale
and Steve Rose

walk me through
what they think could have
caused the crash.

[Josh] Feathering
the propeller of a dead engine

turns the blades parallel
to the airflow

to reduce drag
and help the plane
stay in the air.

But the feathering control
on the C-47 is a bit fickle,

and it might have become stuck
in its normal position.

[Josh speaking]

[Steve speaking]

[Josh] But the engines
are just one
potential culprit.

A little noticed line
in a maintenance report

from the day
of the doomed flight

makes Steve think
the landing gear

could have played a role
in the crash.

The landing gear
stuck in the down position

would have caused
considerable drag
on the plane,

making it much more
difficult to fly.

Also, the reality of war
meant that pilots
were often flying

without extensive experience
in complex
emergency procedures.

The fateful flight of the WACs
was manned by a good pilot,

but one with less
than 50 hours
behind the stick.

Now that I know my target,

it's time to join the team
hunting for the
long-lost plane of the WACs.

And to do that,
the search moves
halfway around the planet

to the place
where their plane disappeared.

I leave Palm Springs
and embark on a 19-hour flight

from the west coast of the US
to the west coast of Africa.

Welcome to the Republic
of Cote d'Ivoire,

which translates
to Ivory Coast.

a moniker that dates back
to French
and Portuguese traders

who once shipped
untold tons of ivory
from Africa's western shores.

Five hundred years later,
the exports have
thankfully changed,

but business is still booming
here in the city of Abidjan.

One business in particular
dominates the modern economy,

and it's pretty sweet.

This is the world's
largest exporter of cacao,

which means if you have ever
had a piece of chocolate,

odds are it originated
from here.

It also means that my diet
is about to go
way off the rails.

The local Bushman's Cafe

has some
of the finest examples
of the national product

for me to sample.

That's the best thing
I've ever eaten.

I'm never leaving here.

What else do you have?
Just keep bringing it.

Just bring everything over.

Yep. Thank you very much.

I'll just be right here
if you need me.

The chocolate made
in Cote d'Ivoire
is enjoyed around the world,

but if you're looking
for some joy that's slightly
less caloric...

-Bonjour.
-Bonjour.

...just head
to the Marche de Treichville,

Abidjan's busy street market.

[singing in native language]

What's up? What's up?

Party right now.

[all cheering]

[Josh] As much as I'd love
to stay with the flash mob
here in the capital,

my final destination
is quite a ways out of town.

So I strap in
for a six-hour drive
up the coast

to meet a group dedicated
to finding the lost C-47.

All right. Well, the team
preparing to mount a search

for the missing plane
are old friends.

And they're staging
their operation

near the suspected crash site
about 200 miles west of here.

Let's rock and roll.

♪♪ Let's get
The motor running ♪

♪♪ I got places to go ♪

[Josh] Outside of Abidjan,
the modern cityscape

is quickly replaced by a blur
of roadside villages,

and eventually by nothing
but humid jungle.

♪♪ No matter what it takes
I'll get to you ♪

♪♪ No ocean too wide
No mountain too far ♪

♪♪ I'll run all night ♪

♪♪ To get to you ♪

Well, welcome to the city
of San Pedro.

You know, last night
I dreamt of San Pedro.

Sorry, that's a Madonna song.

The sun rings through my ears,
whatever that means,

as I find the city's
commercial port,

where I have a reunion planned
with the members
of Project Recover.

Hey.

-Mark, good to see you again.
Yeah, pleasure.
-Good to see you again, too.

[Josh] Meet Project Recover
co-founder, Mark Moline.

Historian, Colin Colburn.

And underwater archaeologist,
Drew Pietruszka.

Project Recover
is a nonprofit group

dedicated to searching for
Missing In Action Americans
from World War II.

I recently worked with them
in Micronesia,

where in 1944,
42 American planes

and over 200 pilots
went Missing In Action.

We located a previously
lost Japanese Zero aircraft...

-Nobody has seen that.
-Yeah, until us.

...and an American
SBD Dauntless

that hadn't been seen
in nearly 80 years.

The first American aircraft
ever located in Truk Lagoon.
We can check it off the list.

[Josh] It was a huge honor
to take part
in such a historic expedition,

which is why I'm back
for an equally
important mission.

Why do we only meet
on remote docks?

-I don't know. [chuckles]
-We're just adding continents
as we go.

Yeah, I know.
So we got another one here.
Welcome to Africa, right?

Tell me at least this is gonna
be an easy mission.

I don't think so.
This is not gonna be
an easy one.

This is really
uncharted waters here.

[Josh] So let's talk
about this.

In terms of where
to look for this plane
and these women,

what do we know?

I was able to get the, uh,
accident report from the, uh,
Air Force archives.

-[Josh] Okay.
-And that provided us
a lot more information.

-You have it.
-Down to an X on the map.

-A literal X on the map.
-A literal X on the map.

Wow, look at this.

So this is a copy
of the original
accident report.

It says the plane
takes off normally.

And then it says no messages
were received until 09:20

when Roberts Field
heard a series
of mayday report

from the aircraft.

Roberts Field in Liberia
was the plane's
first scheduled stop

on its way to the UK.

And it was the tower
at Roberts

that received
their mayday signal.

And a series of maydays
were repeated for a period
of five minutes on voice

with no pause at any time
in order to receive an answer.

So what? Just for 5 minutes
they were calling mayday?

A key in the radio.

We don't really know
what happened,

-but five minutes in an
aircraft emergency is forever.
-Right.

It's a long time for them
to have been in trouble.

[Josh] The mayday signal
is received by the team
in the radio tower

who uses
a signal-direction finder

to determine
the plane's bearing,
109 degrees.

We have a bearing.

Not only do we have
the bearing,

we also have a map
with an eyewitness sighting
of the loss.

We have eyewitness sightings.

-[Colin Colbourn] Yes.
-Okay.

Josh, look here.

A literal X on the map,

-and it's marked where natives
saw a crash.
-[Mark Moline] Right.

[Josh] The accident report
describes an account

from the indigenous people
in a coastal village

who claimed to witness
a plane crashing

not far from the bearing line
of the C-47.

Investigators brought
one witness by boat
to the site,

about a half mile from
a place called Drewin Point,

where they discovered
a mysterious oil slick
on the water's surface.

But no survivors were found,

no bodies recovered.

The search was
ultimately called off,

but the bearing
and the eyewitness account

will allow us
to pick up the trail.

So, it seems like we're
headed to Drewin Point.

-Third piece of evidence.
-[both] Yeah.

Who else has searched here?

Nobody.

-Literally nobody since '45?
-Yeah.

-Not since the war.
-No.

I've been
all over the world, Josh,

and this is one case
where we're going somewhere

where I have no idea
what to expect.

There's no recreational
divers around here.

Nobody's been underwater,
knows the conditions,
nothing.

Right, forget the wreck,
we don't know what's there
at all.

-Nobody dives out here.
-No, real mystery.

[Josh] Back in 1945,
there was no infrastructure

to mount an underwater search.

Even today, we've had to
ship in our own scuba tanks

and an air compressor to dive.

We've also brought in
underwater sonar technology

that has never been
applied here before.

Okay, should we get out there
and try and solve the mystery?

-Let's do it.
-Let's go.

Let's go. Come on.

Project Recover
has a pair of research vessels

waiting to bring us
to our search zone.

We speed out
on to the open ocean,

the first team
to look for this plane

and her vanished passengers
in almost 80 years.

So, Josh, this is Drewin Point
right here.

[Josh] On a boat off of
West Africa's Ivory Coast,

I'm with a team
from Project Recover

searching for
a World War II plane
that disappeared in 1945.

It carried 18 members
of the trailblazing
Women's Army Corps,

still listed as
missing in action.

But now,
an accident report from
the original investigation

is providing new clues
about where the plane
may have crashed.

Okay, so this is our
big geographical marker.

[Colin] That's right.
So a half mile
off of this point

is supposedly where
our aircraft crashed.

And we can see
a fishing village in here.

This is where
eyewitnesses were?

[Colin] Someone from this
village flagged down
American searchers

to say that
they witnessed the crash.

Boy, it's so tantalizing
to think that

somewhere around us,
underneath us,

this wreck exists.
It's just waiting.

It's just waiting and,
you know,

we're the first ones
to come looking for it
since 1945.

And now we just gotta find it.

When the WAC's plane
went down in this remote area,

the Army did their best
to conduct a search and
rescue operation to find it.

They had the same bearing
and the same witness statement
we do.

But we have something
that they did not,

state of the art
21st century sonar.

That tech is brought onboard

by the remainder
of the Project Recover team.

Josh, you remember
Leila Character from
Micronesia?

-Of course. Great to see you.
-Yeah, you too.

I wanted to also introduce
Erik White.

He's our senior engineer.

Nice to meet you.
I assume it's tech time here?

-It's tech time.
-It's tech time, all right.

I've seen this very
dangerous-looking box before.

-Should we see
what's inside of it?
-Yes.

[Josh] We unpack
the team's precious cargo.

Okay, here we go.

It is something to behold.

Okay, the beast.

We call this an AUV.
This is an autonomous
underwater vehicle.

-We're not towing this thing.
It's going off on its own.
-Correct.

And once we're in the water,
Leila, what's the mission?

Once we're in the water,
we've preprogrammed it,
so it knows where to go.

It's basically going to follow
a mow-the-lawn pattern,

where it's collecting data
up and down these rows.

It sends out a beam of sound,
that beam of sound
hits the ground.

If the ground is hard,
the beam of sound
appears bright.

If it's soft,
it appears very dark.

So, when we look at the image,
we'd be looking for something
very bright

-for an aircraft
because it would be hard.
-[Josh] Right.

The most identifiable features
likely to survive the crash
of the WAC's C-47...

[loud crash]

...would have been the twin
Pratt & Whitney engines.

But parts of
the hull and tail sections

were constructed
of steel as well

and may also be preserved.

So once this is in the water,
how are you communicating
with it?

How are you getting data
as to its position?

So when it's in the water,
we communicate through
our Ranger system.

The vehicle will send us
information every minute.

But you don't actually
get the sonar data, right?

You actually have to
recover the unit for that?

-Correct.
-Okay, great. Well,
let's get it in the water.

Okay. Walking it over.

-Ready?
-[Erik] Yep.

[Josh] Okay,
she's in the water.

She's away.

We deploy the AUV,
aptly nicknamed "Hunter."

And in moments,
it dives beneath the surface
and begins its scan,

systematically covering
the preprogrammed search zone.

It's like a Roomba,

if your Roomba costs
three quarters of
a million dollars

and could map 100 ft
below your floor.

It's going to take
six long hours for Hunter

to cover the grid
we've given it,

which is based
on 80-year-old intel.

We'd love to confirm
that this fishing village

is the same one investigators
encountered after the crash

to know if we've
sent our AUV searching
in the right spot.

So, Colin has an idea
to get more recent data.

I say we head ashore,
go to the village,

see if we can find anyone,
fishermen, older folks,

who may have information.

All right, now we just need to
get to shore.

To get to the village,
Colin hails a ride for us.

Bonjour.

Let's call it a canoe-ber.

We arrive at shore
and step out...

All right, merci. Thank you.

...into another time.

Here, on the edge
of the continent,

a traditional
fishing community

living as they have
for generations.

Isolated on one of the most
gorgeous beaches I've
ever seen.

On any other day,
I'd be hunting for a hammock,

but we're here
on more serious business.

All right. Well, we're ashore.

Now the question is,
is there anybody left here
that was alive back then?

-Bonjour. Bonjour, monsieur.
-Bonjour.

[Josh] Anyone alive here
that could have witnessed
the crash

would have to be
well into their 80s.

So, we asked to speak
to the oldest member
of the community.

-...Monogaga?
-[speaks other language]

[dubbed English]
In the village, an old man.

We have a man here
who is nearly 100 years old.

[in English] So 100,
well 100 would be huge.

-[Colin] That's what
we're looking for.
-Yeah, okay.

-[speaks other language]
-[man] Yes, let's go.

-[Josh in English]
Let's go. Please.
-[Colin] All right.

[indistinct chatter]

-[Colin] Bonjour, messieurs.
-Bonjour.

-[Colin] Ca va?
-Oui, ca va.

-Bonjour. Bonjour, monsieur.
-Bonjour.

Bonjour.

[in English] Thank you
for taking a few minutes

to talk with us.
I appreciate it.

Did you grow up here
in Monogaga?

[dubbed English]
Yes, I was born here.

And I have lived here
my entire life.

[in English] In 1945,

an American airplane
was flying

just off the village here
and crashed.

Do you remember
a plane crash here?

I didn't see it,

but I remember older people
here talking about it.

They said something
had crashed into the water.

So, you heard about the story.

It was something
people were talking about.

Yes.

Something crashed
into the water?

That's right. A huge plane
just flew off the Point
and went in.

Do you know
if anything washed ashore,

like wreckage and metal
and things like that?

No nothing.

It was like it never happened.

It just disappeared
into the ocean.

Nothing.

Thank you very much
for talking with us.

Merci beaucoup.

The village elder
has confirmed that

we are searching
in the right place.

And further, the fact that
no debris or remains

washed ashore after the event

may mean the plane went down
relatively intact.

Which could make it easier
for the sonar to image.

Meanwhile, out on the water,
Hunter finishes scanning
the search zone,

and the team scrambles
to retrieve the AUV
and extract its data.

Colin and I
rush back to the boat

to see what, if anything,
it discovered.

-Okay, here we go.
-Yeah.

All right, first question,
is there data?

Yeah, we got some data.
And in fact, about eight
square kilometers of it.

Great, that's a lot
of seafloor.

So, is there anything on it?

We definitely have
some promising targets.

-Okay, take me through it.
What do we got?
-[Leila] All right.

[Josh] These are individual
sonar lanes we're seeing?

[Leila] These are
individual sonar lanes.

So, we've got these
funny looking bright
spots here--

-Ooh, this here.
-[Leila] Yeah.

Now, what's really
interesting here is

this linear pattern of debris.

It does look like
a scatter of objects.

[Mark] Yeah,
it's pieces of something,

and they're circular,
it looks like.

And they are just
so contrasted

-against the seafloor, right?
-[Mark] Yeah.

I mean, they're just
sticking out like these

-bright circular targets.
-[Mark] Bright-- Yeah.

[Josh] Colin, what do you
make of the fact that

we just have these isolated
individual objects here?

[Colin] In most plane crashes,
we're not gonna have

-something that looks exactly
like a plane on the bottom.
-Right.

It's going to get
broken up and scattered.

So, this actually looks like
a debris field that we
might see.

So definitely
worth investigating?

Hundred percent.
We need to go down and
look at what this thing is.

Okay. Anything else
to look at?

Yeah, we have one target
that looks really interesting.

-Okay, what do you got?
-Yeah, let's take a look.

[excitedly] Ooh, what is that?

[Josh] That's a big shadow.

When you see
a shadow like that,

it means that
something's really pronounced

and high off the seafloor.

[Josh] I'm off the coast
of West Africa

in an area where
almost 80 years ago,

a C-47 loaded with members
of the US Women's Army Corps

vanished into thin air,

leaving 18 WACs and three
crewmen missing in action.

Now though, a sonar scan
might add a new chapter
to their mystery.

Any idea how high this object
is that's sticking up?

[Mark] It's about 10-15 ft
off the bottom,

-really big.
Sticking up, yeah.
-[Josh] Sticking up 10-15 ft.

This looks a lot more
like something we might
expect to find

-if there's large pieces
of wreckage.
-Right.

These are large objects
that could be

reflective of a large aircraft
like we're looking for.

Drew, what do you think?
Could that be wreckage?

Yeah. I mean, I think
it's definitely possible.

I think we need to suit up
and go for a dive

-and put our eyes on it.
-For sure.

Well, we got a number
of targets to look at.

We got our work
cut out for us.

Yeah, two dives.

[Josh] We motor out
to the coordinates of
the AUV's first sonar hit.

Seventy-five meters.

[Josh] As we approach,
we prep a shot line,

a weighted marker that
we can follow to the bottom.

Even in rough ocean currents,
the shot line will ensure

that we don't descend
far from the target.

Four, three, two--
Drop, drop, drop!

[Josh] With the shot line
in the water,

Drew, Mark and I
prepare to dive down

to what appears to be

a debris field
on the bottom of the ocean.

All right, what's our move?

We're gonna start with
just these circular targets

that are kind of in a line,

-and just see what they are.
-Right.

Let's do it.

[Josh over radio]

Topside copies.
Divers heading down
the shot line, over.

[Josh speaking]

[Mark over radio]

[Josh speaking]

How's the visibility
down there? Over.

[Josh speaking]

[Mark speaks]

[Josh speaks]

To safely and efficiently
explore around our target,

Drew clips a guide reel
to our shot marker,

and we begin to swim outward.

[Mark speaks]

[Josh speaking]

[Mark speaks]

[Josh speaks]

[Mark speaking]

[Josh speaking]

[Mark speaking]

[Josh speaks]

[Mark speaking]

[Josh speaking]

[Mark speaking]

[Josh speaking]

[Mark speaks]

[Josh speaks]

Topside copies, not wreckage.

That's disappointing to hear.

[over radio]

[Mark speaking]

[Josh speaking]

We may have pulled
a lot of "mussels,"
but we're hardly sore.

Whoo.

We return to the boat
and aim for the coordinates
of our second sonar hit.

Which has a very different
profile from the first one.

Whatever this target is,
it looks like it's sticking

way up off the bottom.

-Way off, prominent shadow.
-[Josh] Yeah.

This is not a bed of mussels.

-No.
-[Josh] No, this is something.

The question is what.
Here we go.

[Josh over radio]

[Mark over radio]

[Josh speaking]

[Mark speaking]

[Josh] The current is powerful
enough to pull us off the line

and sweep us out to sea,

so we descend
as fast as we can.

Divers, topside.
How's the descent looking?

[diver over radio]

[Josh speaking]

[Colin over radio]

Low visibility.
Be safe down there, over.

[Josh speaking]

Well, whatever this is,
it should be sticking
way off the bottom,

so hopefully
you run into it, over.

[Josh] With conditions
this murky,

it's risky for all of us
to be groping in the dark

without getting separated.

So, Drew clips on to
the shot line

and explores in a wide circle
around us.

We watch him disappear
into the gloom and wait.

[Mark speaks]

[Josh speaks]

[Mark speaking]

[Josh speaks]

[Josh] I thought I knew about
every possible way to
enjoy chocolate.

[both] Cheers.

Cocoa tea.

But at the Bushman's Cafe,

I learn about a serious
blind spot in my repertoire.

Okay, this is for the adults.

You can call it
the moonshine cacao.

-Chocolate moonshine?
-Yeah.

-This is chocolate hooch?
-Yes, it is.

Okay. Is it strong?

-Oh, boy.
-[chuckles]

-[loudly] Ooh!
-[laughs]

How you feeling?

I'm feeling like
I want a bottle of this.

This tastes like
chocolate rum.

How do I get a crate of this

loaded into my luggage?

Actually, we never actually
thought about selling it so--

You've never thought
about selling this?

-No, actually. [laughs]
-Let me help you get rich
right now.

Put this in a bottle.

It's my first time
getting drunk on chocolate.

[laughs]

I recommend it.

[Josh over radio]

Topside copies, something big.

Can you tell what it is?

[Josh] In the waters
off of West Africa,

I'm diving with the team
from Project Recover

to locate a plane missing
since the final days
of World War II.

One which was
transporting 18 members

of the trailblazing
Women's Army Corps.

[Mark over radio]

[Josh over radio]

Copy that.
Natural feature, over.

[Mark over radio]

[Josh speaks]

[Mark speaking]

[Josh speaking]

[Mark speaks]

[Josh speaks]

Whoo.

-All right,
that was a heartbreaker.
-Yeah, it was.

You know, first of all,
horrible visibility.

[both] Terrible.

But then out of the mist,
you just see this dark shape
rising up.

-[Mark] Yeah.
-[Josh] But definitely
not a plane.

We return to our vessel
off the coast of Monogaga
without our C-47.

When the Army searched here
in 1945,

there was almost
no infrastructure,

and little has changed today.

This is a supremely
hard place to investigate.

Which is why nobody has
in 80 years.

And that in itself,
is why we're here.

At Project Recover,
our goal is to bring
our MIAs home.

And it's also really important
for us to respect the memory
of the fallen.

Yeah, and I think
a real accomplishment here is

-simply getting this story
out there for people.
-Yeah.

Not just the sacrifice
of these women,

but also just
the incredible dedication

and accomplishment
of the Women's Army Corps.

It's a story that
not enough people know,

-and I hope that we've
brought some attention to it.
-Yeah.

And it's not
the end of the search.
This is just the beginning.

We're gonna
keep looking for them.

This is a special group
of women who could have
chosen to go home,

but they wanted to
go back to the war front
and keep fighting.

And we wanna respect that,
and make sure we find 'em
and bring 'em home.

-Absolutely.
-So, Josh, what we'd
like to do now is

hold up the American flag
and read off the names
of the three crew

and 18 Women's Army Corps
soldiers that were aboard
this aircraft.

[reading] Alfred R. Ellis,
Robert E. Mulhern,
George A. Shiffman,

Doris F. Cooper,
Velma E. Holden,

Flossie D. Flannery,
Evelyn L. McBride,

Rose F. Puchalla,
Mildred E. Rice,

Helen F. Rozzelle,
Ruth E. Warlick,

Alice D. King,
Alice P. McKinney,

Rose Brohinsky,
Frieda C. Friend,

Mary M. Gollinger,
Odessa L. Hollingsworth,

Wilma E. Liles,
Leona M. Seyfert,

Bonnie L. Williams,
and Pearl Roomsburg.

[Josh] These 18 brave women
had to fight just to serve
their country.

They saw a war
that engulfed the world,
and they rushed to volunteer.

And they gave their lives
to make our world safer today.

At the beginning of the war,
America didn't want women
in the army.

By the end,
Douglas MacArthur called
the WACs, "My best soldiers."

The Women's Army Corps
continued to serve after
World War II until the 1970s,

when women were fully
integrated in the US Army.

Today, women make up
more than 16% of our nation's
armed forces.

More than 9,000 women have
earned Combat Action Badges.

The journey that started
with women like the 18 MIAs

on an ill-fated C-47,
continues today.

And while the hunt
for their plane goes on,

the most important duty
we have is to ensure

that their story is remembered

so that their
service and sacrifice

will never be forgotten.