Four men in Casco Township, Mich., have unearthed pieces of what they say is a World War II-era fighter plane that crashed 71 years ago in a southeastern Michigan farm field.
According to news reports, Jim Clary, his brother, Ben – an 88-year-old WWII veteran – and two other men used metal detectors to make the find earlier this month in St. Clair County. There they uncovered several shards of the plane about 8 inches down in the dirt.
The recovered fragments are from a P-38D Lightning that was piloted by 2nd Lt. Al Voss, a native of Elgin, Ill., assigned to the 94th Pursuit Squadron stationed at Selfridge air base in Michigan, Jim Clary told the Times Herald of Port Huron. Voss was killed trying to parachute from the diving plane on Oct. 15, 1941, the Daily Tribune of Royal Oak reported.