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Story last updated at 5:40 a.m. Wednesday, March 16, 2005 Touching History BY RAY WESTBROOK AVALANCHE-JOURNAL   Tommy Doyle, now a high school football coach at Snyder, had not quite reached his second birthday when the warplane carrying his father disappeared in the skies over Palau during World War II. That was more than six decades ago, and government reports at the time gave little indication of what happened to the B-24 bomber, or where it crashed. It remained always a mystery. Doyle has wondered often in recent years about the uncharted crash site, and the father he never knew. Though he is uncomfortable with the word closure, there were things he would have liked to have known, questions that were unanswered about the final flight of the plane on Sept. 1, 1944. AFTER WRECKAGE discovered, Snyder football coach goes on dive off Republic of Palau to get a glimpse of his father's downed World War II plane and a bit closer to the man he never knew. "They have found the plane," he confirmed after returning from Palau on Sunday. He and his wife, Nancy, traveled to the chain of islands known as the Republic of Palau, located east of the Philippines, to be near the site where the plane went down. It is about one-half mile offshore, and in 70 feet of water. He actually has known for some time that the plane had been located. On Jan. 26, 2004, searchers headed by Dr. Pat Scannon of San Francisco, whose BentProp Project is devoted to finding MIAs, reported a positive identification of the wreckage. Doyle began learning scuba-diving and planning a trip so he could touch the plane. "They looked for this particular plane that my dad was on for about 10 years," he said. In his thoughts, Doyle had looked longer than that. COURTESY OF THE DOYLE FAMILY In a boat above the wreckage of his father's warplane, Snyder-area resident Tommy Doyle, left, is given a Palau flag by Tommy Remengesau Jr., Republic of Palau president, in memory of the MIAs from the wreckage. The two are joined by, from left, Dr. Pat Scannon, head of the BentProp Project, Lt. Megan Poyant, commander of the U.S. Air Force Civil Action team, and master diver Bert Yates. When asked what his mother may have told him of what his father was like, Doyle answered by somewhat avoiding the question: "He was a stone mason. He built the stone archway of the old junior high school football stadium at Lamesa. And I have been told that he built the rock fence around the courthouse at Gail, but I don't know that for a fact." He speaks personally, though, of letters that his parents exchanged almost daily during the war. "They were young, trying to make a living, and the war came along, and everybody went." He said, "There was a lot of indication of how much he loved her - in every letter." His mother, Myrle Doyle, who died in 1992, never remarried after her husband, Sgt. Jimmie Doyle, was listed as missing in action. Military reports indicate the plane took off on a combat mission to Koror Island, one of the islands of Palau, and anti-aircraft fire struck the plane's left wing over the target area. From that point, researchers surmise and eyewitnesses report, the number two engine burst into flames and the plane began tumbling on its descent to the ocean. ROBIN O'SHAUGHNESSY * AVALANCHE-J OURNAL Tommy and Nancy Doyle have just returned from Palau where Tommy was able to dive down into the tropical waters to see where his father's plane had crashed during WWII. Order a print Three men were believed to have parachuted safely from the doomed bomber, but later were captured and executed, according to Japanese documents. "My father was not one of them," Doyle said. That meant his father and six other crewmen, plus a military photographer, were still inside when the plane crashed into the ocean. When the Doyles traveled to Palau, they were met by the republic's president, Tommy Remengesau Jr. And later, he went with them to the crash site and made one of the dives. Doyle had forgotten to bring his gloves that were needed for the dive near coral formations, so the president of the republic gave him his. Everywhere, the Doyles were treated like royalty out of respect for why they came, and for the part Americans played in Palau's freedom from Japanese occupation. They were given a Palau flag and a U.S. flag in formal ceremonies. Nancy Doyle said she didn't attempt the dive. "I wanted this to be an experience for Tommy. I didn't want him to have to worry about whether I was doing all right with the diving." Their daughter, Brandi Doyle of Lubbock, didn't accompany her parents on the trip. "I know this meant a lot to them, because they got to hear from people in Palau who were touched by the war who were thankful to the United States and for the sacrifices they made in the war." The plane's wreckage lies in two distinct pieces, according to Doyle. The fuselage had split apart, with one side going to the left of an underwater coral hill, and the other to the right side. Doyle's father was a tail gunner aboard the plane. "I went about as far into the tail section as I could get. There were 50-caliber machine gun bullets there. I picked them up and thought, probably the last person who touched this was my father. And there was one that had been fired." The rest of the inside of the plane is covered with silt, and broken conduits and other debris block access to the interior. For Doyle, it seemed as close to his father as he could be, this side of eternity. "Now I know what happened to him and where he was. I've gone there, and I've touched the plane."   ray.westbrook@lubbockonline.com t 766-8711

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