FINAL FLIGHT BLOG |
T a b l e
o f C o n t e n t s |
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2021
November -
Article about Final Flight by Doug Moe in Madison Magazine from
Madison, Wisconsin
January - Death of
Leonard Spivey |
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2015
November 18, 2015 - 73 years.
September - I will be appearing at the
Flying Heritage Museum at
Paine Field in Everett, WA to speak about Final Flight on
September 19 at 10 AM. A PDF poster for the event is
HERE.
Paine Field
3407 109th Street SW
Everett, WA 98204
Ticketing: (877) FHC-3404
FHC Office: (206) 342-4242
THIS article from the Fresno Bee September 8, 2016 issue
discusses my discovery of Glenn Munn on Mendel Glacier and puts the
story in context to shrinking glaciers and climate change.
August - Visit to
Moscow, Idaho and the home where John Mortenson was raised. Upcoming
Final Flight presentation at Flying Heritage Museum at Paine Field in
Everett, September 19, 2015. |
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2013
September - Presentation
at Words, Writers, & West Seattle on November 1, 2013 from 4-6 PM
at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore in Westwood Village in West Seattle. This is a free, open to the
public, event sponsored by the Southwest Seattle Historical Society and
Barnes & Nobel Booksellers.
August - Probably my last
trip to Mendel Glacier to look for the remains of William Gamber and
John Mortenson. Also, three composite photographs (Warning! large
files) that compare changes since 2007 of Mendel Glacier, the Mendel
Couloirs, and the permanent snow ice field on the east slope of Lamarck
Col.
March - Eugene
Fletcher's death, February 12, 2013.
February - A report on
the 2013 History Flight planning meeting. News about Buster, the
cadaver-smelling dog. Peter's second appearance at Museum of Flight in
Seattle. Mendel Glacier plans for August, 2013.
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2012
December -
Here is an
interesting article from the Proceedings of the
2011 George Wright Society Conference on Parks, Protected Areas, and
Cultural Sites. Final Flight is cited on page 5 and 7 of
the PDF article. Please check it out!
September - Return to Mendel Glacier.
Report on the Golden Sierra High School trip. News about the History
Flight mission to search for Gamber and Mortenson's remains using
ground-penetrating radar and a cadaver-sniffing dog. Also, newspaper
stories about my renewed search and the high school trip.
Summer - Read about Peter Stekel's plans to return to Mendel Glacier in
late August for a reconnaissance trip. Also, the involvement of
History Flight to locate 2nd Lt. William Gamber and Aviation Cadet
John M. Mortenson in September (These are the remaining two
crewmembers missing from the Beech 18 AT-7 Navigator that was lost
November 18, 1942). Finally, find out about students from Golden
Sierra High School in Garden Valley, California who are interested in
reaching Mendel Glacier for a school history and journalism project
and to report on the search for Gamber and Mortenson.
Donate to the Golden Sierra High School Mendel Glacier Expedition
HERE.
Read their press release for the trip
HERE.
Tax deductable donations can also me made by check to:
Black Oak Mine Unified School District
6540 Wentworth Springs Road
PO Box 4510
Georgetown, CA 95634
530-333-8300 Phone | 530-333-8303 Fax
Donations are still being accepted to
help defray the cost of the trip and the expense of hiring a
substitute teacher for the days two of the high school faculty members
were chaperoning the trip and not at work.
May 2012 -
Reader comments. Plans to return to Mendel Glacier.
January 2012 - My last regular
blog posting for Final Flight. I will make postings as news
occurs. Announcing
Beneath
Haunted Waters, my new book project.
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2011 |
December - Buy a copy of Final Flight
for a friend or relative. You won't, and they won't, be disappointed.
Thank you.
November - Download an MP3 copy of Peter
Stekel's Seattle Public Library talk about Final Flight. The
appearance was at the main branch of the library on October 11, 2011.
October - A new
article by Peter Stekel, with lots of photographs, that reviews and
recaps the Final Flight story. Taken from the upcoming December, 2011
issue of Sierra Heritage.
September - Notice from the Elliot Bay
Book company about my appearance at the central
Seattle Library
October 11th to
make a presentation about Final Flight.
August - This month's plans for Peter.
July - More on Peter's Ed Venture in
Sequoia National Park and the Sequoia Natural History Association's
promotion of Final Flight in their bookstores.
June - "Home" by
English folksinger, Gerry
McNeice. Also,
Eric Blehm [author of
The Last Season and
The Only Thing Worth
Dieing For] and I will be teaching an Ed Venture creative
writing course this summer in Sequoia National Park for the Sequoia
Natural History Association. The class will be held July 22-24.
May - New article in
Warbird Flyer about former carrier-based Navy pilot, Bob Jones.
Peter Stekel appearance to promote his book, Best Hikes Near
Seattle [FalconPress, 2010] at
Wide World Books & Maps in
Seattle.
April - Peter
Stekel in California during April for speaking engagements and
PowerPoint presentations in support of Final Flight. Also
profiled HERE
in the Spring, 2011 issue of UC Davis Magazine.
March - A P-39 Aerocobra found in a lake
in Russian after disappearing in 1944. January 15, 2011 presentation
of Final Flight at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
February -
Check
HERE for a Final Flight Blog entry on Amazon's Kindle web page.
Don't forget, copies of Final Flight are available at
Amazon or
Powell's World of Books on line or at your favorite bricks and
mortar bookstores. You can read Final Flight on Kindle or on paper -
your choice!
January -
US Military battlefield and non-battlefield deaths. Numbers of US
aircraft lost to training accidents and to combat in the south
Pacific. Also, wisdom from military and flight training manuals. |
2010
December - Information about the book
release party for Final Flight to be held on December 4th from
5-10 PM. Updates on Final Flight book readings for 2011. My
next project: Hester - A Son, A Father’s Enduring Love, Two Airplane
Crashes, and the Sierra Nevada.
November - The 18th
is the 68th anniversary of the loss of AT-7 41-21079 with William
Gamber, John M. Mortenson, Ernest Glenn Munn, and Leo Mustonen on
board. Also 93rd anniversary since Armistice Day celebrations
{November 11} began with the end of the Great War - the eleventh
month, eleventh day, eleventh hour. Video of Mendel Glacier area from
late September, 2010 at altitude of 15,000 feet. Book readings in
Portland, OR and Bellingham and Lake Forest Park, WA.
October -
Final Flight book tour highlights, conversing with Andrew
"Jack" Walton, who accompanied the US Army team to the Mendel Glacier
crash site guided by William Bond, September, 1947. Peter Stekel
interviewed on Sacramento's Capitol Public Radio.
September - A remembrance of Barbara
Christian Adams, cousin of William Gamber, who passed away May 19,
2010.
August -
UPDATE UPDATED! X-ray photos of Peter's ankle. Peter breaks his ankle in three
places while crossing Crabtree Pass, north of Miter Basin in Sequoia
National Park, and has to be Medi-vac'ed. Dr. Robert L. Goulding
found! Excellent initial reviews of Final Flight
HERE.
July - It's a busy month for people
interested in airplanes! Begins with: 1.] Publication update
for Final Flight. 2.] Coming author events in October and
November. 3.] Another JPAC mission accomplished. 4.] Tony Krizan from the
Sierra Star in Oakhurst, CA searches Sequoia & Kings Canyon
National Parks for a missing P-40 from 1941. 5.] The "Swamp Ghost" of
Papua New Guinea. 6.] An interesting story
about Pamela Archer Murphy, wife of WW II's most decorated soldier,
Audie Murphy.
June - Advance praise for Final
Flight the book. Excellent words and praise about
Jon Turk and The Ravens Gift.
May - Contribution of participants from High Sierra Topix. Photos
of climbing Mt. Mendel from SummitPost.org
April - Peter Stekel's March KUOW
interview about
Final Flight on Seattle's NPR affiliate broadcast. William
Bechter, Bill Davis, and Leonard Spivey and how their experiences in
WW II were helpful with understanding what the crew of the missing
AT-7 was doing at Mather Field in 1942.
March - On March 19, 2010 Peter
Stekel interviewed by Dave Beck
from Seattle's NPR affiliate, KUOW.org. Listen to the 8 minute MP3
broadcast HERE at KUOW.org or
HERE at the Final Flight website.
The interview involves my description of finding the remains of Glenn Munn
on Mendel Glacier in August of 2007 and how it has affected me. "Home," a
song by British balladeer, Gerry McNeice recounts the story of Leo
Mustonen. An MP3 along with a YouTube video can be heard and viewed.
February - First: See the finished front cover for
Final Flight. Then, listen to a radio broadcast of Peter Stekel interviewed by Keri Brown at WVPB for a
West Virginia Public Radio show about Final Flight which
aired on February 22. Also, Peter Stekel and Final Flight on the National
Geographic channel. Finally, new documentary
about classic planes being produced - beautiful scenes of a Beech 18
in flight. From
Terwilliger
Productions it is called
Aviation
Epic.
January - Final Flight copyedits
are done. Examples of the uniforms worn by Leo Mustonen and Glenn
Munn. Peter Stekel television interview about the "Nevada Triangle"
and occurrence of airplane crashes in the Sierra Nevada. Photo
comparisons of Golden Gate National Cemetery, 1948 and 2010. |
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2009
December - Sample chapter,
"Pro Patria Mori," which covers the topic of why we honor soldier
dead. This chapter will not appear in this form in the published
version of Final Flight.
November - Publication
update.
67th year anniversary of AT-7 #41-21079 crash. Crew portraits.
October - Death of
Richard Christian - cousin of William Gamber. Update on National
Geographic television special featuring Peter Stekel and Final
Flight. YouTube videos of Mendel Glacier from 15,000 ft.
September August July -
Cemetery at Normandy in France. My summer trip to Mendel Glacier.
Visiting Hal Klieforth. Norman Clyde cabin site.
June - Flying in a Beech 18 with Michael
Kopp.
May - Historical and contemporary views
of Mendel Glacier and AT-7 wreckage. Capt. Robert A. Lewis.
April - Submitting
Final Flight manuscript to Wilderness Press. Publication of
Best Hikes Near Seattle by Peter Stekel.
March - Marilynn Dick.
February - OV-10 Bronco
crash on Darwin Glacier. Photos of Senator Hotel, Mather Field, and
airports at Los Banos, Corning, Eagle Field, Mesa del Rey - all of
which figure prominently in the Final Flight story.
January - Marilynn Dick.
Photos and video captures from the following movies, all featuring a
Beech 18: It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, XXX, Octopussy, The Flyboys, Letters from Iwo Jima, All the
Pretty Horses, Along Came Polly, Insomnia, and The Aviator.
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2008 |
December - Troubles with getting public
documents about OV-10 Bronco crash on Mt. Darwin. "Who They Were,"
biographical sample chapter from Final Flight. Archive of
stories and audio files, by
Mark Grossi, "Lost Flights" about Sierra Nevada
airplane crashes from August-September issues of the
Fresno Bee.
November - 66th year anniversary of AT-7
#41-21079 crash. Crew portraits.
October - Meetings with meteorologists
and climatologists Laura Edwards, John Lewis, and Steve Johnson.
Taking Jim, Gabe, and Scott Shriver, Glenn Munn's nephews, to Mendel Glacier crash site. Images of
Mendel Glacier.
September - Aerial photos of
Mendel Glacier. Photos from the 1948 burial of the crew at Golden Gate
National Cemetery. Hiking to Mendel Glacier with
Mark Grossi and Mark Crosse from the Fresno Bee.
August - Meeting with
Michael Nozel [climber and co-discoverer of Leo
Mustonen] and Hassan Basagic [glacial geologist].
July - William
Langewiesche and my thoughts about writing Final
Flight. Video from WMV May 16 broadcast about Glenn Munn, Blond
Bomber Comes Home, with my interview. Sequoia & Kings Canyon
National Parks summer guide with my article about wilderness and
Mendel Glacier.
June -
West Virginia Public Broadcasting documentary about
Glenn Munn. YouTube videos of Leo Mustonen's funeral. Phyllis
Reynolds. Memorial Day musings. Links to videos and images.
May - Interviews with Pauline Jones and
Perry and Barbara Adams. Video from Glenn Munn funeral. Various videos
of television news programs covering Glenn Munn funeral story. Links
to newspaper stories about Glenn Munn.
April - Pat Macha.
Poem about Glenn Munn written by M/Sgt Louis Marin.
March - Links to newspaper stories
and moderated internet forums discussing Mendel Glacier and/or the
AT-7 crew. Television interviews about Final Flight. David
Hadden, Fresno County Coroner. Pat Macha. AT-7 crew headstone images
from Golden Gate National Cemetery.
February - Meeting with Leonard Spivey at
Mather Field to discuss William Bechter and his diary for November,
1942. Visiting Vintage Aircraft in Stockton where Taigh Ramey
refurbishes Beech 18s. History of ice climbing in the Mendel couloirs.
Photos and musings of Capt. Roy Sulzbacher's trip in 1948 to Mendel
Glacier.
January - Capt. Roy Sulzbacher. Links to
2007 videos of Darwin Canyon. Conversations with Leonard Spivey, Lt.
Col. Tom Betts [USAF Ret.]. Two books about airplane crashes.
2007
December - Capt. Roy Sulzbacher.
Conversation with Taigh Ramey about the Beech 18. Glenn Munn's ring.
November - Lousy Hollywood movies about
airplane crashes. Interviewing Ruth Mortenson. Other missing aviators.
October - Capt. Roy Sulzbacher's story.
Finding Ruth Mortenson [sister of John Melvin Mortenson]. Identifying
Glenn Munn's ring. A possible television special about the Final
Flight story.
September - Videos of television
interviews with Peter Stekel discussing his discovery of a second
airman from the AT-7 lost November 18, 1942 in Mendel Glacier.
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