A lively spirit made Laura Besley not content to sit home. She joined the service to see the world and encountered a fascinating adventure that ended tragically.

Laura Earlene Besley, the first and only child of her parents, arrived after an eight-year wait. Born on January 21, 1914 to Rueben Earl Besley and Susannah Pearle “Susie” Edinger Besley, the couple named her after her dad. It is assumed her parents called her either Earlene or a pet name of Earley because they list her in census records this way.

Earlene’s parents married in 1906 when he was 24 and she was 23. Rueben was from New York and Susie was from Pennsylvania. He was 31 and she was 30 when Earlene was born.[i]

When Earlene is five, she’s living on Main Street in Elk Township, Pennsylvania with her mother and father in a house they own . Elk Township sits about 100 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Apparently, Earlene’s parents have spun of a derivative of her middle name as a pet name for in the 1920 census, she is listed as “Earley.” Earlene is attending school while her mother tends to the house. Rueben is self-employed, supporting them by working vulcanizing auto tires. Vulcanization is a process to harden rubber.[ii]

By the time Earlene is 16, her father is working as a driller in an oil field. The family is still living in a home they own on Main Street, but the town is listed as Shippenville. It is most likely the same home they had ten years prior just a shifting in boundaries of two tiny towns. On this census, her parents list her as Earline R.[iii] Earlene is attending high school.

Earlene graduated from Shippenville High School

HER LIFE BEFORE MILITARY

Earlene graduates from high school and at some point, moves to the state capitol, Harrisburg, 164 miles from her hometown. She takes a job with the State Department of Labor and Industry as a typist and rents an apartment.[iv] From at least 1936 through 1939, she was in Harrisburg.[v]

At some point in the 1930s, tragedy strikes her family. Her father, Rueben, suffers a cerebral hemorrhage and as a result is left an invalid and is unable to work any longer. Because of this, he is paralyzed to some extent.[vi]

During her time in Harrisburg, Earlene shared an apartment with another single young lady, Helen M. Savidge. The roommates made the news under the headline “Burglar Escapes with $13 After Shoving Woman Aside in 3rd Street Apartment.” According to the newspaper, the burglar climbed their fire escape and startled Helen. He shoved her aside and made off with cash from the women’s two purses.[vii]

As the war years loom, Earlene is 26 in 1940 and is back living with her parents. Her father, now paralyzed, most likely needs help from his wife and daughter. Earlene is the only one working outside the home. She is a typist. In this census, she is listed as Earlene L. She continues to keep up with her Harrisburg friends as noted in a September 1940 issue of The Clarion Democrat newspaper that she visited friends there. During her time back at home, she worked on forming the first Shippenville High School alumni association and worked on the group’s first gathering.[viii]

By 1942, Earlene is back in Harrisburg. This time she’s working as a senior typist for the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board.

HER MILITARY STORY

Laura Earlene Besley enlisted in the WAAC on August 22, 1942 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Her service number was A-306040. She entered with the rank of aviation cadet and served in the 5th Air Force with the rank of Staff Sergeant.[ix] During her time in the military, her first name begins to appear as Laura rather than Earlene.

After passing her examinations to become a WAAC, she left for Fort Des Moines, Iowa on September 20, 1942. Laura headed out with 12 other Harrisburg-area women to become members of the aircraft warning system after completing training.[x]

Just a month after heading to basic training, Laura loses her father when he dies of coronary disease on October 23, 1942. [xi]

HER LAST DAY

Staff Sergeant Laura E. Besley is stationed in New Guinea.

With a day off to spend, Laura, described as a dark, pretty girl[xii], joined 23 other Army personnel for a site-seeing trip in a transport plane.[xiii] Colonel Peter J. Prossen was the pilot. Prossen was the chief of maintenance for the Far East Air Service Command. Others on board were:

· Major George H. Nicholson

· Major Herman F. Antonini

· Major Phillip J. Dattle

· Captain Herbert F. Good

· Captain Louis E. Freyman

· Lieutenant Lawrence F. Holding

· Lieutenant Robert E. McCollom

· Staff Sergeant Hilliard Norris

· Corporal Charles R. Miller

· Corporal Melvyn A. Weber

· PFC Melvin A Mollberg

· PFC George R. Newcomer

· T/3 Marion W. McMonagle

· Sergeant Helen G. Kent

· Sergeant Belle G. Naimer

· PFC Alethia Fair

· PFC Mariam C Gillis

· PFC Mary Landau

· PFC Eleanor Hanna

· Corporal Margaret Hastings

· Lieutenant John B. McCollom

· Sergeant Kenneth W. Decker[xiv]

Corporal Margaret Hastings described the day in The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper months later. Hastings’s boss was Colonel Prosson, the pilot. She reported the eight WACs were excited for a chance to fly over the legendary area nick-named “Shangri-La.” The pilots who had flown over the area came back with many tall tales of the sights they had seen – or imagined they had seen- from native’s the size of fictional Paul Bunyon to native women who looked like movie stars.

The WACs filed onto the camouflage-painted plane first and the men filled in around them. Hastings said she took the first seat but when she realized she didn’t have a good view, she moved to the last seat near the back door, opposite of Laura. She recalled winking at her at takeoff.

The plane, taking off from Santini Airstrip, flew at 9,000-10,000 feet for 55 minutes before arriving over Hidden Valley. It only took a few minutes to cross the valley. The plane was in a climb. Suddenly the plane was shearing the tops off tall, jungle trees.[xv] The plane shook fiercely, and suction drew the walls inward. Upon impact with a mountain, the tail section broke off and the plane burst into flames.[xvi]

The plane crashed into a 4-mile thin but 25-mile-long jungle surrounded by the Oranje Mountains. The only gorge that serves as an entrance to the valley is cut off by a mountain wall running at direct cross angles, according to a Pittsburge Sun-Telegraph article. It is believed the wall was hidden by clouds when the plane crashed.[xvii]

Only three people survived the crash including Corporal Margaret Hastings, Lieutenant John B. McCollom and Sergeant Kenneth W. Decker.[xviii] Hastings and McCollom crawled out of the torn tail. Decker, with a head wound, was thrown out of the front of the plane. McCollom heard screaming and went into the burning plane and pulled out two women. It was too late to save any of the others. First out was Eleanor Hanna followed by Laura Besley. Eleanor Hanna was gravely injured but Laura appeared uninjured except for a few minor burns, according to Hastings’s recollection in the Philadelphia Inquirer.[xix] Eleanor Hanna died the first night in the jungle.[xx]

According to Hastings newspaper report, Laura was still shaking and hysterical the next day. They placed her on a cot taken from the broken tail of the plane and dressed her in a flying suit. Laura was conscience and lent her shoes to Hastings, who had lost hers in the crash. It was cold and damp in the jungle, so Hastings and Laura shared the cot. Hastings recalled Laura saying, “Everyone else is dead and we are very lonely aren’t we.”[xxi] Laura died during the night of May 15, 1945 at Balim Valley, Dutch New Guinea which is now Papua New Guinea, Indonesia,[xxii] presumably from internal injuries.

The crash happened in the nearly inaccessible Owen Stanley Mountains of Netherland New Guinea.[xxiii] Survivor Corporal Margaret Hastings buried Laura Besley at the crash site.[xxiv] It was three days later before the survivors were spotted.[xxv] They had hiked through the jungle to a rock clearing so they could be seen.

The three survivors suffered burns and shock,[xxvi] and eventually two had developed gangrene. Decker had deep back wounds[xxvii]. They were trapped in the jungle for 47 days, were delivered a walkie-talkie, food and medical supplies by parachute. Eventually, a medical team and other help parachuted in to tend to them.

An airborne funeral service was held at 11,000 feet above the wreckage site with Catholic and Protestant rites. Volunteer service members parachuted into the area then hiked to the wreckage. Laura’s body and the others were then deemed impossible to move so were buried properly at the crash site. Twenty crosses and one Star of David were dropped into the jungle.[xxviii] The crosses were placed by the volunteers on the graves.

Another team, that parachuted in, built a landing strip to support a glider. It was hacked into the jungle. It took several days to create. After the injured were deemed well enough to make a three-day hike through the jungle, they were moved to the landing strip. For several days, failed attempts were made before the glider rescue worked. The glider was then lifted aloft by a C-47 with a grabline.[xxix]

Staff Sergeant Laura E. Besley remained buried near the wreckage in the New Guinea jungle for the next 14 years until it could be recovered for burial. According to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin newspaper, the army believed at first it would not be able to retrieve the body from the rugged mountains. [xxx] Many years after the crash, men sent by the Army traveled by plane, boat, and foot, traveling over mountains and through jungles, to reach the Hidden Valley.[xxxi]

COMMENDATIONS

World War II Victory Medal

American Campaign Medal

Army Presidential Unit Citation

Army Good Conduct Medal

Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal[xxxii]

HER GRAVE

Laura’s body was recovered 14 years after the crash.[xxxiii] She was then buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific[xxxiv] in Honolulu, Hawaii on 13 May 1959.[xxxv] A dignified and solemn ceremony was led by a military chaplain under a bright Hawaiian sky. Six WACs served as pall bearers. An honor guard from the 25th Infantry Division was present, and “Taps” was played by a lone bugler. The flag was sent to her mother in Pennsylvania.[xxxvi]

AFTER THE WAR

After the war, her widowed mother continued to live in Shippenville. She never remarried and lived to age 95.[xxxvii]

RESEARCH NOTES

Some places confuse the date of the plane crash with the date of her death. The plane crashed on May 13, 1945 but Laura did not die until May 15, 1945.

There are many references to the fascinating and tragic story of the plane crash in a remote area of New Guinea. Look below this story as well as on the facts page to follow those links.

FURTHER READING

FILM- Rescue from Shangri-La- A documentary made in 1945 by Alexander Cann, who parachuted in to film the actual rescue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57jwMM8MVKI

BOOK- Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuchoff, a former Boston Globe reporter, wrote this New York Times’ bestseller about the crash that killed Laura Besley and 20 others and left three survivors lost in the jungle.

https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Shangri-Mitchell-Zuckoff/dp/0061988359

NPR- All Things Considered Show- A WWII Survival Epic Unfolds Deep In 'Shangri-La'

https://www.npr.org/2011/04/26/135710893/a-wwii-survival-epic-unfolds-deep-in-shangri-la

STORIES OF OTHER SAME-CRASH VICTIMS

**Laura Besley - Fold 3 Page **

https://www.fold3.com/page/641412304/laura-e-besley

**Eleanor Pauline Hanna - Fold 3 Page **

https://www.fold3.com/memorial/83043223/eleanor-p-hanna

**Helen G. Kent - Fold 3 Page **

https://www.fold3.com/page/639645262/helen-g-kent/stories

**Belle G. Naimer - Fold 3 Page **

https://www.fold3.com/page/638655497/belle-g-naimer/stories

Alethia May Fair – Fold 3 Page

https://www.fold3.com/memorial/83131513/alethia-m-fair/stories

Marian C. Gillis- Fold 3 Page

https://www.fold3.com/memorial/83119392/marian-c-gillis/stories

Mary Landau- Fold 3 Page

https://www.fold3.com/page/638773424/mary-m-landau/stories

ABOUT THIS STORY

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