European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 17, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Yank the army weekly August 1945 a wac a tech sergeant and a Looey survived a plane crash and spent 45 Days in dutch new guineas hidden Valley before their by so Frozzie George yank staff correspondent dutch new Guinea went out of its Way to copy a Grade movie when a c47 of the far East air service command crashed in the Oranje Mountain Range killing most of its Crew and passengers and leaving for survivors Only 1st John Mccollom of Kenneth Decker of and pretty wac Margaret Hastings of perfect ingredients for a boy  Triangle in from the crash on the scenario refused to conform to the sergeant did not try to shoot the lieutenant nor did the lieu tenant attempt to strangle the sergeant in the dead of All Over the affections of pleasantly nicknamed As a mat Ter of Blunt Suzy was sick As a dog from Burns suffered in the crash and there was no where for her to get either the Sarong or the per manent that Are necessary to the proper Holly Wood and she and the sergeant he was also also burned severely and the when they we rent occupied in such prosaic tasks As nursing each Bent their full efforts to Ward getting the hell out of their made order technicolor the Valley where they landed in the first something of a it was marked unexplored on the maps and had been first observed from the air by Ray Elsmore of Palo a command Pilot who passed Over it while making a Survey photo squadrons followed hot upon Elsmore heels to find out More about the new their observation showed that it was heavily popu by natives smart enough to have drained swamp areas and cultivated reclaimed the Complete with villages and scattered native proved to stretch about 20 Miles Long and four it lies beyond the Hump of the Oranje Range at an Altitude of about stories immediately sprang up about a lost the natives were supposed to be 7 feet tall and almost in spite of the rough flying More and More planes went out to have another look at the hidden Valley and make their own guesses at its True the c47 that crashed was on one of these Mccollom and Suzy were All in the rear of the cargo compartment when the plane began to act up a mechanical failure was later blamed for the it tangled with some tree smashed into the ground and burst into Mccollom and Suzy were the Only ones who managed to struggle Clear of the burning still and Suzy were badly went Back to the Burn ing plane and pulled Clear two other both beyond the meager Aid the three earlier survivors could give they died on the tarpaulins where Mccollom and Suzy had Laid them after dragging them from the and Decker and Mccollom and Suzy were alone beside a charred c47 in a Valley marked unexplored on All the Mccollom had managed to save some mor Phine quickly exhausted on the two wac Fatali ties and some hard Candy and 13 canteens of water from the they stuck by the spot where they had crashed for the first two Days while Deckers and Suzy Burns healed some the second night they heard natives calling to each other near them and they reviewed in their minds the rumours they had heard about head Hunters in the it rained All monday and the third they set off to see if they could find a Clearing lower Down the Valley where they would stand a better Chance of being spotted from the they moved slowly and ate their hard first we ate the red says then when we got tired of them we ate the yellow they heard the natives again tuesday it want until wednesday noon that they hit a Clearing Miles from their starting Point the trip had taken them a Day and a hour after they had spread their life raft tarps on the ground a b17 spotted it dropped two life rafts and flew Back to Hollandia to report the and Mccollom and Suzy celebrated on hard Candy and shortly after their discovery from the they were discovered on the the natives were neither head Hunters nor 7foot White they were Short and Black and shy and they understood sign language Well enough to Light a fire for the i Trio and to put some Sweet potatoes and bananas to roast in the then it began to Mccollom and Suzy crawled under their tarps and the natives their bananas and the next morning a plane returned to drop medical supplies and a with the radio set communication was established be tween ground and and the survivors in the Valley were Able to learn the plans Hollandia Headquarters was making for their an afternoon plane dropped enough equipment to Stock a Small country and Bobby pins for shoes for All More batteries for the Walki talkie and other on May five Days after the two med ical airmen of the first filipino reconnaissance battalion parachuted Down to join the hidden Valley they brought with them an other pounds of equipment and the Ben Jamin Bulatao of san Francisco and Ca Milo Ramirez of treated the wounds of the survivors and fed them 10inl they fixed up a place to sleep that would protect All of them from the Suzy would rather talk about the two airmen and what they did than about any of her other experiences in the hidden two Days later Cecil Walters of port jump master of the first and eight volunteers landed in the main 10 Miles from the temporary Camp of the he and his men set up a base Camp and connected with the Walki talkie net leaving three men in they took off to Findl Mccollom and Suzy and the two they ran into natives on the Way and the natives were delighted to see Walters was charmed by their Friendship until he realized that there was something familiar about the sign language they were they were making indecent proposals under the false impression that Walters and his men were a group of fair skinned the gis had to drop their pants to clarify the it was the first says the 6foot2inch that i Ever had to do that to prove i was a it took the party three Days to cover the 10 when they reached the survivors and the airmen they set up More elaborate quarters and renamed the site the recuperation the party remained there for some 25 Days and what Suzy remembers most is her she says she Doest know whether she got on anyone else but everybody sure got on not much exciting happened in the 25 the Walki talkie network was Busy with plans for getting the party out of the a 220 Pound newsreel cameraman named Alex Cann dropped in by planes continued to bring a partial list of the supplies dropped into the Valley included these items Mosquito signal 20 pairs of 300 pounds of medical 14 six Tommy rounds of Tomato pineapple 75 10inl machetes Lap laps for the clothes for the survivors including shanties for can 75 mail and 21 20 wooden crosses and one wooden Star of David for the Graves of the crash by june Suzy Burns were sufficiently healed for her to attempt the trek to the base the entire party packed up and the Walki talkie network was set to humming again with the word that All military personnel in the hidden Valley were now willing and Able to get the hell out of their alleged by this time Hollandia had decided that the Only Way to get them out was by glider glider specialists had been collected from All Over the the party in the Valley set to work Clearing a 400yard glider burning the Brush off and marking on june 28 a christened fan less Faggot for the Benefit of newsreel photographers and was towed off to the hidden it made the Clearing and the Landing strip All right and from that time on the performance became a publicity program worthy of Graumans the sky bulged with planes and the planes bulged with photographers and correspondents and curious the radios crackled with drama that any network writer would have Given his Eyeteeth to there was a question about making the glider was the weather Good enough the traffic pattern was widened to allow More room for the pickup after if the snatch was a it would be most disappointing to the correspondents and the photographers and the the sky Over the pass was closing now the hidden Valley party was filing into the at the expected Landing Point of the glider a welcoming committee of medics and other i Grover whales was already another delay the strip was soft and some of the gliders Load had to be another 10 minutes and then a c47 went in for the it was a clean the fan less Faggot came off the ground smooth and Sweet and Elsmore voice was heard Over the Walki talkie boy  he was the two planes landed at a strip about Quarter of a mile away from where they were expected and the and other welcoming officials had to hurry Over to catch the first words of the t survivors As they got out of the after 45 Days in Decker i want a Mccollom i want a and Margaret Suzy Hastings i want a Hollywood would have done it so much