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Reviews & Feedback "Congratulations on a touching, restless haunt of a film. ...one stops breathing, to watch......... I’d like to tell you about Last Flight Home and Jimmie Doyle and his son Tommy. But before I do, it’s only fair that I declare a personal interest: my father was a naval aviator during WWII and flew many missions against the Japanese during the same period and not far from where this superb film is set. But I get ahead of myself ... Jimmie Doyle was a crew member of Babes in Arms, an Army Air Corps B-24 Liberator based in New Guinea. On August 24th, 1944, he wrote to his wife Myrle: “Dear Precious ... maybe it won’t be too long until the day when I will be home and we will be together again. With your arms around me I can forget all of this and settle down to spending years with you. ... tomorrow is a busy day, and I have to get up early, so I’ll stop for tonight ... with all of my love, Jimmy.” For reasons unknown today, a few days later he was assigned to another B-24 that took off to bomb Japanese forces in the Palau Islands. A direct hit from anti-aircraft fire sent the four-engine bomber plunging into the lagoon. Three parachutes were seen. All eleven crewmen were listed as missing in action. None came home. In 1993, as part of an expedition searching for a Japanese trawler sunk by Ensign George H. W. Bush in July 1944, Dr Pat Scannon saw an aircraft wing near the Palau shoreline. His guide knew nothing of its origin or the fate of the crew. “You can’t have this kind of catastrophic failure without death,” Scannon said, “and the scene just overwhelmed me ... I didn’t want them to be forgotten.” Six years later, the BentProp Project took form. More than 200 Marine, Navy, and Army Air Corps planes were lost over the Palau Islands, where Scannon and his team of volunteers give up vacation time to search for crash sites. Their annual trips have recovered the remains of more than fifteen MIAs, whose surviving family members knew only that a father, brother, or husband died defending his country there. Jennifer Powell and Dan O’Brien’s filmis part history lesson, part detective story, and all human interest, segueing effortlessly from jungle and watery searches, to profiles of lost airmen, to interviews with their families. While each of the vignettes is guaranteed to touch your heart, none is more moving than the discovery of the fuselage of a B-24. Matching serial numbers with US Air Force records revealed it was the Liberator Jimmie Doyle boarded on the last day of his life. Half a world away, his son Tommy received a telephone call from Pat Scannon. “That was just like a dream come true that wasn’t ever going to,” Tommy remembered. “Somebody’s actually found this thing, sixty years on ...” Tommy and his wife Nancy, schoolteachers in Snyder, Texas, agonized over what to do. “We finally told ourselves – we can’t pass this up,” Nancy said. “We just bit the bullet and pulled out the credit card and went.” In Palau, wearing scuba gear for only the second time, and with the BentProp Team hovering protectively around him, Tommy was taken to the bottom of the lagoon. “[My father] was the tail gunner,” Tommy says. “There was a hole sorta under the bottom, and I tried to get in as far as I could. . . And to think that ... I may be within ten or fifteen feet of where he died. And to touch the plane that he died in and to think that probably about over there somewhere were his remains – that’s pretty, I don’t know what the word is. But it grabs your whole heart and twists it in knots, I’ll tell you that. “And we had a little conversation. Nobody else’s business, but we had a little conversation in there. And I don’t know how to describe it, except that it was just – it was like we made contact. It was like I got to say some things to my dad that I’d never said before.” And that’s just one of the stories. Last Flight Home is a testament to fallen warriors, the families who remember them, and the small group of men and women dedicated to finding and honoring them. As I said at the beginning, my father flew in that war. He came home. Jimmie Doyle and thousands of others did not. Jim Hooper, author and war correspondent
America in World War II magazine review August 2008 GQ magazine article June 2008...by Wil Hylton... Women in Aviation magazine article March/April 2008. WAI presentation reviewed by Aero-News, March 2008 Aviation History Magazine article November 2007. EAA Warbirds article December 2007.
Listen to our interview on WOSH Oshkosh Radio from Airventure, Aug 2007! Watch our interview on Memphis TV! from the Memphis Film Fest March 2007. "I can only admire in awe the difficulty of capturing pent-up emotions of the family members with Col. Joe Alexander, USMC Retired , Author-Historian "........The Last Flight Home is a powerful film that should not be missed.......powerful stories of family members and those who see that these men are not forgotten...." Justin Taylan, www.PacificWrecks.com "...that was incredible, I never expected the movie I just saw, a wonderful artful powerful film ... Sam from Palau "I just wanted to congratulate you again on the documentary. The film was really good, but the work you guys do is AWESOME! I sent in my check this morning!" Christine from Memphis "The film was slotted on the last day (Sun.) and the last showing (730pm) and was still sold out! That NO one left for the Q&A says it all almost— what said it all were all the red eyes we saw in the audience." Pat from San Francisco "I want to let you know amazed I was to see the film. I had no idea to the extent of the mission and the success that has been made. To meet the key players and the film makers, the emotional feeing in the room was incredible." Bill from Vermont "Three weeks ago I saw the film "[L]ast [F]light [H]ome," I cannot tell you how impressed I was with this documentary ... please advise me as to where I can purchase a copy ... It's a story I want to share locally and hopefully gain more support for your efforts." John from Palau "In August of 1993 with the finding of the trawler sunk by GHW Bush in July of 1944 just off an island of Palau a forgotten portion of the former President's war activities came to light. With Dr. Scannon's continuing research into the battles over Palau and his search for Lt. R. Houle, GHW Bush's leadman, who went missing over the islands it is highly probable that Dr Scannon will be able to fill in these missing pieces of history." Robert Stinnett, Author "...while much has been written about other battles of the Pacific theater, Palau and her battles have been all but neglected. The men who fought these battles deserve no less recognition for their valor and sacrifice. Dr. Scannon and his BentProp organization are making this chapter in aviation history a better documented campaign and it is a great service to these brave men and their families..." Col. Joe Alexander, |