Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

• An American B-17 Flying Fortress shot down by Japanese fighters during World War II crashed into the jungles of Papua New Guinea.
• The lone survivor of the 10 crew on board crawled away and was found by villagers before suffering for two years as a prisoner of war.
• Decades later Jose Holguin led the search to find the crashed bomber and recover the remains of the fallen crew.

Nursing a newly broken jaw and intense back injuries, United States Army Air Force 2^nd Lt. Jose L. Holguin crawled away from the wreck of his B-17 Flying Fortress in a Papua New Guinea jungle, the lone survivor of the 10 crew members on board. Decades later, Holguin, the flight’s navigator during World War II, returned to the jungle multiple times to find the wreck and recover the remains of the lost airmen. With the help of local villagers who saved his life in 1943, he was successful.

It took over six decades, but thanks to Holguin’s dedication, the remains of all nine servicemen were eventually recovered by the Department of Defense and sent to the United States, returned to their families for burial with full military honors. Pieces of the B-17 were excavated and now reside in a local museum.

The multi-decade quest started with the downing of the bomber in 1943.

The B-17E Flying Fortress, built by Boeing in Seattle and then flown to Salt Lake City in November 1941 by the U.S. Army Air Force, had an ominous start to its service (the plane’s entire history is chronicled by Pacific Wrecks, a nonprofit dedicated to World War II research). The bomber was nicknamed “Naughty But Nice” by its crewmen, who used colorful orange cursive letters to paint the moniker on the right side of the nose, alongside a painting of a topless brunette woman in a blue skirt. The Flying Fortress transferred to San Francisco and took off for Hawaii on December 6th, arriving at Hickman Field on Oahu, adjacent to Pearl Harbor, during the surprise Japanese attack on the site. The B-17 diverted to Haleiwa Field and then flew search missions around Hawaii for months.

The bomber transferred to Australia in February 1942 and started flying out of Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea in early 1943. The plane’s first brush with death occurred in March 1943 during the Battle of the Bismarck. A pair of Japanese fighters damaged the plane, killing a pilot. But the bullet-ridden B-17 was patched up and soon took part in a 13-bomber mission, leaving a Papua New Guinea airfield just before midnight on June 25, 1943. By 3 a.m. the next morning, the squadron bombed the Vunakanau Airfield near Rabaul.

With Holguin as the navigator, Naughty But Nice stayed in the area for an additional 30 minutes, meant to confuse radar operators as the rest of the bombers completed their missions. After a Japanese “night fighter” shot down a separate American B-17, it then damaged Naughty But Nice on three different passes. The Americans didn’t return fire for fear of exposing their position in the night sky.

During the battle, Naughty But Nice lost both engines and the crew prepared to bail out. As Holguin raced about looking to help his fellow servicemen, the plane lost control and went into a spin. With the nose escape hatch already open, Holguin was tossed out and he deployed his parachute as the bomber hit the jungle floor of the Baining Mountains southwest of Rabaul.

The other nine crew members on board the bomber were killed but Holguin, the lone survivor, escaped the wreck with a broken jaw and back injuries suffered during the aerial attack. He reportedly crawled for weeks without food until he was found by locals, who fed and cared for him at a village called Arumbum. American search missions the day after the attack didn’t turn up signs of either of the lost B-17s.

While Holguin escaped the wreck site, the Japanese descended on the downed B-17, removing intelligence material and burying remains in a shallow grave.

The villagers, unable to properly care for Holguin’s injuries, released him to the Japanese. He became a prisoner of war at the Rabaul Prisoner Compound, receiving no medical treatment. In 1944, Holguin was transferred to Tunnel Hill POW Camp, where his treatment was worse. In September 1945, he was one of only nine originally from Rabaul saved by the Australian Navy and transferred to Papua New Guinea before his return to the U.S.

Holguin said that during interrogations, he was shown a page from his flight log, proving the Japanese had been on board the crashed B-17.

The crash site on New Britain Island was next found by local citizens in 1949 and some remains were recovered, but they were unidentifiable at the time. Those remains were buried as unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

In 1982, Holguin self-funded his first trip to Rabaul in search of the crash site. On his first trip he met a local woman who had helped him immediately following the crash nearly 40 years earlier. On his second trip, locals led him to the plane’s wreckage. By the third trip, he was able to recover the remains of his fellow crew members. After nearly four decades, all nine fallen airmen were identified, including the ones interred as unknown in Honolulu. The B-17’s cockpit section was salvaged and is now on display at a local museum, complete with the colorful Naughty But Nice nose art.