Frozen in Time: Glacier Girl

On July 15, 1942, during World War II, a group of six P-38F Lightning fighter planes from the 94th Squadron along with two B-17 bombers were being flown to England to fight in the war when they got lost in bad weather and ran out of fuel. The planes were forced to make an emergency wheels-up landing on the Greenland ice sheet. After 11 days all 25 of the men were rescued, but the planes were abandoned on the glacier. The area receives 35 to 50 feet of snow each winter, resulting in an average of seven feet of buildup each year. According to Bob, the planes were buried under 268 feet of snow turned into ice, exactly 50 years from the time they landed on the glacier to when the expedition recovered the first plane, which they dubbed “Glacier Girl.”

Bob said the expedition crew used modified, ground-penetrating radar to locate the lost squadron and identify the specific location of all the airplanes. Next, they melted a small hole about 10 inches in diameter and sent down a probe to touch the airplane. “This took us seven tries before we finally hit the airplane. It was an exciting moment,” he said. “Then we brought in the 38,000 pounds of equipment which included melting probes, generators and much more. Our team was prepared to stay for three months, and we had 8,000 pounds of food with us.”

“Once we set up the equipment, we used a large, heated melting-cone that we called “the gopher” to melt a four-foot diameter shaft. Once we reached the airplane, we used a water cannon to melt a room around the plane. Finally, we sent a team down to take the plane apart in several major sections: the wings; engines; propellers; the nose, which contained a 20mm canon and four 50 caliber machine guns; the cockpit; center section; the tail booms and tail section; for a combined weight of 13,000 pounds.”

“The melting-cone had to make five passes back and forth to make a slot in the snow that was 20 feet wide by 5 feet long to provide enough space to bring the pieces up. The griphoist we used was a mechanical device with a ¾-inch steel cable that had to be manually pulled. One of our team members was a body builder and he was the only guy strong enough to apply the even pressure necessary to raise the parts to the surface of the glacier.”

Once the pieces had been pulled up to the surface, the team loaded all of them into the DC-3 to fly home, except the center section, which was too large and had to be sent home by boat. “The incredible recovery of Glacier Girl was featured in a cover story in the January 1993 issue of Life magazine, plus there were hundreds of interviews and TV shows,” said Bob.

The pieces eventually arrived in Savannah, Georgia and were later sent to Littleborough, Kentucky, where restoration of the plane began. Bob stayed with the project and oversaw the restoration of the airplane, which took 10 years. “It took $638,000 to recover the plane, but it took $4.5 million to fix it,” he said. “In 2002, when the restoration was completed, 20,000 people gathered to watch it fly. This was more people than actually lived in the entire town!”

In 2005, following the death of the expedition’s original financier, Roy Shoffner, Glacier Girl was purchased by investor Rod Lewis and moved to San Antonio, Texas to be part of a collection of airplanes called War Birds. Bob moved to San Antonio to stay with the airplane and help establish the collection. Bob lived in San Antonio for 12 years before moving to Florida in 2017.

Shortly after they reunited in Florida, the couple went to Niagara Falls in a helicopter to get married and honeymooned on a 40-foot canal boat while they explored the Erie Canal.

For the next several years until his retirement in 1988, Bob was transferred and promoted to various facilities including to New Hampshire, where he served as an advisor to the New Hampshire Army Aviation Support Facility for three years; followed by Director of Plans, Training and Security for Fort Buchanan in Puerto Rico; Deputy Airfield commander at Fort Benning in Georgia; and finally, Airfield Commander at Fort Devens in Massachusetts.

In 1988, Bob retired from the military and took a job in Georgia as the chief pilot and plant manager for an Atlanta textile company that made, among other things, pantyhose. Although his job was a little more mainstream, he was still game for adventure.

“While I was living in Atlanta, I got involved with a group called the Greenland Expedition Society,” he explained. “I flew the expedition’s King Air 200 airplane to Greenland several times for their project to recover World War II airplanes from the Greenland Ice Cap.”

“Because of my previous association as a pilot with the group, I was asked by founder Pat Epps, the president of the Greenland Expedition Society, if I would head up the official 1992 expedition as the project manager to recover one of the planes from 268 feet inside the Greenland Glacier. Naturally, I quit my job making pantyhose and joined the expedition!”

In 2017, Bob and Teri re-connected in Florida and were drawn together by a variety of mutual interests. Since they both had incredibly adventurous and nomadic careers, it was not surprising that this couple continued their adventure-seeking ways. Shortly after they reunited in Florida, the couple went to Niagara Falls in a helicopter to get married, and they honeymooned on a 40-foot canal boat while they explored the Erie Canal. The adventures continued as the couple purchased a pontoon boat and traveled the United States in a motor home with their two Schipperke dogs.

In 2018, Bob and Teri were living in the Palm Harbor area of Tampa when Bob received a phone call from Jo Klenk (Royal Bonnet), a Shell Point resident who led the Aviation Club. Jo asked Bob to visit and speak to the group. “We had never heard of Shell Point,” said Teri. “We drove down to Fort Myers and toured the Shell Point campus. Everyone was so happy here. It made a huge impression on us, and we decided to move into Harbor Court on The Island in 2021.

When Jim Stapleton of Harbor Court met his new neighbors Bob and Teri, he realized the three of them had something in common: they were all Department of Defense veterans. So, Jim immediately got Bob and Teri involved in his favorite activity, the Veterans Group at Shell Point.

In their home, they have a map of the world in their entryway with pins all over it. “There must be at least 120 countries that we have traveled to at least once or worked in on several occasions,” said Teri. Nearby is the original instrument panel from Glacier Girl and several artifacts from Bob’s expedition days.

Today, Bob and Teri enjoy an active lifestyle here at Shell Point. As residents of Harbor Court, they have met many of their neighbors and enjoy spending time with former veterans living in the community. They also enjoy boating, camping, traveling, cooking, walking and daily gym workouts.

It is plain to see that this couple is still discovering new adventures every day and sharing them with their new friends at Shell Point.

BY ANNA SMITH, VP MANAGING EXECUTIVE