P-38 crash in Drvar, Bosnia, in September 1944.

[RSwank]

I have a rather "wild" theory about this. Maybe the MACR is not "missing" but rather the MACR is wrong.

I think we may have a MACR for the name of the pilot, who was from the 1st, 14th or 82nd FG. He was probably lost around Aug to Oct 1944 (but we probably should be willing to expand that range).

In the MACR, it will state either the man was lost (and may have been seen to crash) near Drvar or more likely, he was NOT seen to crash elsewhere. (I think if the MACR says the man was lost near Drvar the orginal investigators would have "found" him.) What is wrong with the MACR is the serial numbers. I think our man may have been flying a plane with a serial number in the range 44-23059 to 44-23208 and the MACR may also show a plane in that range. The mistake is that the wrong plane's info got recorded on the MACR. Maybe the pilots switched planes at the last minute, or maybe there was a records screw up.

As an example take MACR 7192 for Lt Howard G Micheli, 1st FG, who is still MIA. He is last seen flying over the northern Adriatic on July 13, 1944. (The date may be too far away from our range) but he was flying 44-23147. He was not able to communicate via radio with other planes in his formation and he seems to just fly away on his own. He was not seen to crash and other pilots in his element thought he would be able to land somewhere in friendly territory. The other planes in his element landed on Vis.

How many other MACRs can we find like this, particularly in the date range Aug to Oct 1944?