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Gulf treasure hunters went looking for gold, found lost military plane
MICHEL FORTIER
It started as a mission to find Battista's lost gold but turned into an 18 year quest to identify a crashed military B-26 and bring closure to the families of four Air Force personnel who have been listed as MIA since 1942 when their plane went down.
Pat Clyne Paradigm Productions, LLC
Divers explore the wreckage of a B-26 Marauder that went down on a training mission from Fort Myers Army Air Base, now Page Field, in 1942.
Pat Clyne Paradigm Productions, LLC
Divers explore the wreckage of a B-26 Marauder that went down on a training mission from Fort Myers Army Air Base, now Page Field, in 1942.
Submitted by Pat Clyne Paradigm Productions, LLC
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They sound like treasure hunters.
HammerHead. Fiberglass Bob. Caucasian Tim.
And they talk like them, too. The grizzled salts and the young ones, too.
“I believe the gold’s out there,” said Jake Wicburg, the 14-year-old son of Capt. Tim (not Caucasian Tim) Wicburg.
And is he going to be the one who finds it?
“Oh yeah,” he says.
“The plane’s there and the gold’s there,” the elder Wicburg said. “I’ll be looking for it for the rest of my life.”
When a young Timmie Wicburg snagged a piece of an airplane on a fish hook in 1990, he had heard the stories. So had his dad, the late Capt. Jim Wicburg.
Legend has it that when Fidel Castro’s revolution drove Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista from the island in 1959, he didn’t leave empty-handed. Batista is said to have looted the national treasury, loading gold onto four B-26s, which headed for Tampa as Batista himself fled to the Dominican Republic.
Only three planes landed in Tampa.
The fourth, stories say, carried its load to a watery grave in the Gulf of Mexico.
The plane was carrying gold -- $3 billion, or $30 million, or some other amount, depending on the teller.
In 1990, Capt. Jim went to his friend, Fiberglass Bob, also known as Fort Myers Beach resident Bob Gutierrez.
“Capt. Jim Wicburg came to me,” he said. “Timmie had caught a piece of an airplane.”
Gutierrez said he grew up in Fort Lauderdale hearing tales of Batista’s gold from Cuban neighbors.
“I’d spent time treasure hunting, chasing Spanish gold,” he said. “We’d heard about Batista’s gold, and we were always looking for a plane.”
The three men headed to the Gulf and found the plane that Timmie Wicburg had once hooked.
Gutierrez and Tim Wicburg dove the site. Tim’s dad stayed on the surface.
They found intact wings.
They found motors.
They found machine guns.
They were diving the site in August 1992 when Hurricane Andrew drove them off.
The storm changed the bottom, and it took the treasure hunters 16 years to get back to where Wicburg and Gutierrez were that day.
“We couldn’t find it again,” Gutierrez said. “Over the years we’d dive it when we had the time and we had the money.”
In the end, the plane wasn’t carrying Batista’s gold.
Or anyone else’s.
What it was carrying was closure for four families.
The plane was a B-26 Marauder that went down on a training mission from Fort Myers Army Air Base, now Page Field, in 1942.
Two of the six-man crew had bailed out, and search crews found their bodies a few days later. The others were never found.
“I thought it was Batista’s gold,” said Tom O’Brien, a Chicago business owner who helped bankroll the recovery operation. “Once we got the radio tag, we knew it wasn’t.”
Capt. Jon “HammerHead” Hazelbaker of Fort Myers Beach ran one of the main dive boats.
He said most of the artifacts from the wreck were brought up in May, but it took time to clean them up.
“We thought there was a high probability it was Batista’s gold,” he said. “It was a B-26. The debris trail runs in a straight line between Havana and Tampa.”
Tag number 117966 dashed the hopes of the would-be millionaires.
That hope springs eternal, however.
“What brought us all together was the ‘what-if’s,’ ” O’Brien said. “There are a lot more ‘what-if’s’ out there.”
“I think there’s a good chance it’s out there,” Gutierrez said. “And we’re not going to stop looking.”
Comments
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What does the comment "not caucasian Tim" mean?
To me...it means ignorance.
But maybe it is my ignorance as this may be a piece of history here.
Enlighten me to the comment.
Beetlejuice is "not caucasian Beetlejuice"
Beetlejuice has his own great old movie that's a must-see.
Beetle what race might you be....?
"not caucasian?"
"not Chinese"
"not Japanase"
Guess again.
"Not caucasian Beetlejuice, I be!
U see?
#1 Posted by beetlejuice on July 19, 2008 at 8:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)
You need help Beetle.
Was it the movie that inspired you?
#2 Posted by Opinionated on July 19, 2008 at 8:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Don't mess with my fave movie.
Meanwhile, what was the "not caucasian comment?"
I don't get it...really....I don't.
Opinionated is a very original name, too.
Who needs help here?
Would you like to sit on my couch and talk about it? :-)
#3 Posted by beetlejuice on July 19, 2008 at 8:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Not on your life :-}
Opinionated is more original than the name of a movie though.
Aren't we all opinionated while we blog?
Peace...
#4 Posted by Opinionated on July 19, 2008 at 9:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
...anyway, great story and thanks NDN's for the read...
#5 Posted by mattmaki on July 19, 2008 at 9:45 p.m. (Suggest removal)
:-) Opinionated...one last question.
Are you not caucasian?
Peace 2 U 2 :-)
#6 Posted by beetlejuice on July 19, 2008 at 10:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Ok girls...stick with the subject matter.
#7 Posted by lite_n_up on July 19, 2008 at 10:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Three planes took off...two landed.
They found the lost plane. Horray!
What about not caucasian Tim?
What about him?
He's gotta be offended.
#8 Posted by beetlejuice on July 19, 2008 at 10:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Betel, 4 planes took off and 3 landed.......
As stupid as the comments on here are, I will surmise this....
No,,,, even I can not save the idiocy displayed here
#9 Posted by volochine on July 20, 2008 at 12:26 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I'd love to know what depth the wreckage is at. From the underwater light level I see in the images, it looks like it's not too terribly deep. I understand that the divers probably want to keep the location a secret, but it sure would be fun to dive it someday. :)
#10 Posted by steffraff on July 20, 2008 at 1:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)
They were referring to someone else named Tim, not the "Caucasian Tim" that they had first spoke of.
#11 Posted by antdoy2003 on July 20, 2008 at 3:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Beetle you are just plain lost, simply and utterly lost. LOL
Your reading comprehension is atrocious.
I think the whole point of saying "not Caucasian Tim" was to NOT confuse TWO different persons , in the first four line of the story they mention TWO different Tim's. Distinguishing between two different characters is the reason.
Read the WHOLE article ALL the way through, don't just scan it and then off and run with nonsense.
#12 Posted by Jadip811 on July 20, 2008 at 4:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Their discovery technique of luckily snagging a piece of wrecked airplane gives me great confidence that they'll soon find the real, gold carrying B-26.
Get those fish hooks in the water, men.
Either that, or face the fact that your big dreams died with the finding of that radio tag.
#13 Posted by myrealname on July 20, 2008 at 7:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)
We know where its at...we will be looking for the gold also!
#14 Posted by techie on July 20, 2008 at 8:56 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm already there, Techster! Counting all my booty now! Grog for everyone!
Even the Techie!!!
#15 Posted by CutthroatLiberal on July 20, 2008 at 9:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Perhaps the fourth plane never took off and the Fidel family is spending the money on themselves!
I see a few novels coming on the market and movies about the plane.
#16 Posted by rtsspeaks on July 20, 2008 at 10:41 a.m. (Suggest removal)
volochine --
It gets better. Go over to the Circle story.
Spray-painted poetry with lots of overspray and drips.
The attention spans have to exhaust themselves at some point.
Let's pray Fox comes up with a new reality show to distract the principal offenders.
Who, of course, will not recognize themselves. That's deathless prose they've shoveling.
#17 Posted by elnuestros on July 20, 2008 at 12:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)
"kill all liberals" that will solve all problems on planet earth
#18 Posted by aintskered on July 20, 2008 at 2:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)
First you lump'em with your favorite huggin tree.
Then an upper cut from the Big Book on Bureaucracy.
aw, screw you Aqua....
#19 Posted by CutthroatLiberal on July 20, 2008 at 8:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
No Aquaman, we're not.
Especially after his hateful and racist emails he directed at Beetle.
What a jerk!
#20 Posted by beetlejuice on July 20, 2008 at 9:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I was lost...and now I get it...the nickname Caucasian Tim...
Yes.....I was lost...but now I'm back...I was confused.
....nicknames geez...so slow sometimes.
#21 Posted by beetlejuice on July 20, 2008 at 9:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
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