Benjamin Bottoms (November 1, 1913 – November 28, 1942) was a United States Coast Guardsman who died while attempting to rescue the crew of a USAAF bomber that had crashed-landed in Greenland in November 1942.[1] Bottoms was the radioman of the USCGC Northland's Grumman J2F-4 Duck floatplane. When a B-17 bomber crash landed near Northland his aircraft was assigned to search for it. Bottoms's pilot LieutenantJohn A. Pritchard sighted the bomber, and landed as close to the wreck as possible—four miles away. Pritchard and Bottoms were able to assist two of the injured bomber crew to their plane, and take them back to Northland. However, on their second rescue visit they encountered bad weather, and crashed. It took seventy-five years to locate their bodies.
Bottoms and his pilot Pritchard succeeded in landing on Greenland's icecap, on November 22, 1942, rescuing the three surviving crew members of an RCAF plane.[1] This was the first time a Coast Guard aircraft had landed on the icecap.
On November 28, 1942, the pair were able to make one successful landing near a USAAF B-17 that had crash landed on the icecap, and had brought the two most injured crew members to Northland.[1] Prior to their second landing an overland expedition to the downed B-17 had experienced its own disaster, with a sled falling into a crevasse. When Bottoms and Pritchard landed, and learned of this additional disaster they planned to take one more crew member to Northland, and return with Northland crew members to help search for members of the overland expedition. They took off successfully, but Northland's radioman heard their transmissions fade as they were struck by bad weather. After the weather cleared another plane found the wreck, and from above determined their crash had not been survivable.
The crew of the B-17 had been left with supplies, and no further attempts to rescue them were made until Spring, five months later.[1]
Distinguished Flying Cross recipient letter, dintisguishing himself by heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight.
At Coast Guard Aviation Training Center in Mobile, Alabama, a barracks and bachelor officer's quarters was dedicated as Pritchard-Bottoms hall in 1971.
Radioman First Class Benjamin A. Bottoms, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross "for heroism and extraordinary achievement in the line of his profession as radioman while participating in aerial flights incident to the rescue of Army fliers, stranded on the Greenland Ice Cap, on November 28 and 29, 1942. Maintaining excellent contact by radio between his plane and another ship, Bottoms rendered extremely valuable assistance to his pilot on two flights to the Ice Cap. He gave accurate and pertinent data on operations and conditions prevalent at the scene of rescue, and assisted the pilot in rendering aid to the injured and marooned airmen. His courage, skill and fearless devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service."
References
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Christopher Havern (2015-02-18). "Coast Guard Heroes: Benjamin A. Bottoms". Coast Guard Compass. Archived from the original on 2019-04-01. Retrieved 2019-02-08. Soon after the plane encountered a heavy snow storm and crashed on the ice cap. Bottoms' last radio message to the ship was that they had a successful takeoff and that he needed weather reports. After the storm subsided, search parties from a nearby U.S. Army base and from the ship were organized to search for the lost aircraft.
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William Theissen (2018-09-24). "The Last of the Coast Guard's MIAs". Maritime Executive. Archived from the original on 2019-02-08. Retrieved 2019-02-08. The burial of the aircraft under seventy years of snowfall and the movement of the ice in which it is embedded have hampered these search efforts. The story of Pritchard and Bottoms and the attempts to find them served as the focus of the 2013 bestseller book "Frozen in Time" by Mitchell Zuckoff. In 2014, the Coast Guard Academy inducted Pritchard into its Hall of Heroes while Bottoms has been honored as the namesake for a new Fast Response Cutter.
^"Pilot killed during heroic 1942 rescue mission honored by Coast Guard". CBS News. Hartford, Connecticut. 2014-11-07. Archived from the original on 2019-02-08. Retrieved 2019-02-08. The U.S. military has stepped up efforts to recover the plane that is now entombed in a glacier, including a mission to Greenland this summer by the Joint Personnel POW/MIA Accounting Command. The plane may hold the remains of the Coast Guard's last two MIA service members, Pritchard and his radioman, Petty Officer 1st Class Benjamin Bottoms.
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Scott Gross (2018-07-03). "75-year search continues for missing servicemen in Greenland". KTVA-TV. Archived from the original on 2019-02-09. Retrieved 2019-02-08. 'So the two-person crew, pilot John Pritchard and Radioman Benjamin Bottoms, took off,' Marley said. 'They managed a successful landing on the Greenland ice cap and hauled back the two most injured back to the Northland. The next day, they went back to the B-17 where they picked up the corporal in an effort to go back for supplies. On the way back, the plane crashed into the ice.'
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Patrick J. Kiger (2018-09-06). "Recovered 'Lost Squadron' Plane Leads to New Mystery". How stuff works. Archived from the original on 2019-02-09. Retrieved 2019-02-08. In addition to retrieving the P-38 from the ice, searchers will head to nearby Koge Bay and deploy several more radar-equipped drones in an effort to locate a Coast Guard Grumman J2F-4 Duck, a small, single-engine amphibious plane that vanished in a storm during an effort to rescue a crashed B-17 crew in late November 1942. They hope not only to locate the wreckage, but also to retrieve the remains of the decorated pilot, Lt. John A. Pritchard, Jr. along with those of his radioman, Petty Officer 1st Class Benjamin Bottoms and U.S. Army Air Corps Cpl. Loren Howarth, who also were on board.
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Susan Schept (2010-03-22). "Enlisted heroes honored". United States Coast Guard. Archived from the original on 2010-03-29. Retrieved 2013-02-01. After the passing of several well-known Coast Guard heroes last year, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard Charles "Skip" Bowen mentioned in his blog that the Coast Guard does not do enough to honor its fallen heroes.
^"U.S. Coast Guard announces name for first Sentinel-class cutter". 2010-03-22. Archived from the original on 2010-03-25. Retrieved 2013-02-01. Previously designated to be named the Coast Guard Cutter Sentinel, the cutter Bernard C. Webber will be the first of the service's new 153-foot patrol cutters. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen approved the change of the cutter's name to allow this class of vessels to be named after outstanding enlisted members who demonstrated exceptional heroism in the line of duty. This will be the first class of cutters to be named exclusively for enlisted members of the Coast Guard and its predecessor services.
^"FRC Plan B: The Sentinel Class". Defense Industry Daily. 2014-05-02. Archived from the original on 2014-07-07. Retrieved 2014-04-03. All of these boats will be named after enlisted Coast Guard heroes, who distinguished themselves in USCG or military service. The first 25 have been named, but only 8 have been commissioned...
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