... Hunt Continues for a Lost Duck

The Coast Guard used to have a saying: "You have to go out, but you don't have to come back." This typified the mindset of Coast Guard aviators during World War II, symbolizing the bravery of a select few. More than 68 years ago, on 28 November 1942, Lt. John Pritchard and Radioman First Class Benjamin Bottoms set out to locate and rescue the survivors of an Army Air Forces B-17 that crash-landed on Greenland's remote eastern coast near Koge Bay. The duo departed USCGC Northland (WPG 49) in their J2F-4 Grumman Duck, located the B-17, and safely landed their craft on the ice cap, carefully avoiding large crevasses in the process.