Hello,
This is my father, who is not Asian, nor Pacific Islander.
Where is that info from?
He was stationed in Japan prior to Alaska, but is a Caucasian. He was in Special Services in the USAF
He was supposedly drowned in Hidden Lake in Alaska. Body never recovered.
The Story of his drowning, along with a few others Drowning along with my father , was told to authorities by the only survivor of the overturned fishing boat.
Survivor happened to not be able to swim, yet was only survivor . Strange.
My father and the others who drowned, were VERY capable swimmers.
The survivor was instructed by authorities in USAFSS not to talk to families of the deceased after the deaths were announced.
He was later admitted to mental institution By the military.
This survivor, many years later, found a sister of my father and insinuated that they may have been on a mission and then abruptly stopped communication.
Hidden lake, Alaska, where my father was last seen,( not where you have listed above,) was a man made lake ,and has been dragged and no remains found.
DNA tests were done by surviving siblings to hopefully find a Match to bones. But, results to any findings were negative.
This lake should have had remains found, as, its man made. Yet nothing.
I am curious how you got information that you posted on my father ? And why?
Thanks.
Awaiting reply.
G. Wellner
Hi:
I'm the guy that survived. Harold Thorne.
Hello,
This is my father, who is not Asian, nor Pacific Islander.
Where is that info from?
He was stationed in Japan prior to Alaska, but is a Caucasian. He was in Special Services in the USAF
He was supposedly drowned in Hidden Lake in Alaska. Body never recovered.
The Story of his drowning, along with a few others Drowning along with my father , was told to authorities by the only survivor of the overturned fishing boat.
Survivor happened to not be able to swim, yet was only survivor . Strange.
My father and the others who drowned, were VERY capable swimmers.
The survivor was instructed by authorities in USAFSS not to talk to families of the deceased after the deaths were announced.
He was later admitted to mental institution By the military.
This survivor, many years later, found a sister of my father and insinuated that they may have been on a mission and then abruptly stopped communication.
Hidden lake, Alaska, where my father was last seen,( not where you have listed above,) was a man made lake ,and has been dragged and no remains found.
DNA tests were done by surviving siblings to hopefully find a Match to bones. But, results to any findings were negative.
This lake should have had remains found, as, its man made. Yet nothing.
I am curious how you got information that you posted on my father ? And why?
Thanks.
Awaiting reply.
G. Wellner
I'm the guy who survived. Harold Thorne
You have a lot of misinformation; I don't know where it came from. First and foremost, we were not on a "mission".....we were fishing. When I talked with your aunts, uncle, and grandmother at your uncle's wedding in North Carolina, I told them the whole story. I never insinuated we were on some mission. There was some speculation on your family's part, an d given that we really couldn't talk about what we did (The USAF Security Service was very secretive) and the bodies never recovered, I guess it's an understandable assumption that the whole thing was a "cover story" to hide what really happened. It's just not factual.
I was never told not to contact the family, and I was at the memorial service in Alaska. I was kept separated from them because my Commander didn't want me to be further traumatized and we didn't know how the families would react to me. I never met them until years later. I was NEVER institutionalized, in fact never received any psychiatric help or councelling until many years later. The Operations Officer, Major Rice, in some misdirected effort, told the families I had returned to my home in Ohio (interesting, since I'm from Pa.) to recuperate. I didn't learn this until years later, from your aunt. I never left Alaska and finished out my tour there in May 1977. I was never banned or told not to talk to the families. I just had no idea how to contact them in the pre-internet days and I was overseas much of the time.
Your dad, another guy we worked with, Mike Pomeroy and I went fishing in Mike's boat.
We were going to fish for landlocked salmon prior to the lake freeziing over as the fish tend to feed just prior to that happeneing. The lake already has a little bit of sheet ice around the shoreline, and the Coast Guard later told me the water was 34 degrees. The wind was blowing an estimated 35 mph at the time of the accident. Nasty, dangerous conditioins. We made a bad decision.
I can swim just fine....rollled over on my back and did a backstroke to go with the wave action. That got me to shore. It's not strange at all. I believe your dad developed a cramp; he was off to my left maybe 25 yards. I saw him stop swimming, then lost him. We'd just finished flag football season (he was our quarterback, and he was great) and he'd pulled a muscle in his leg during the last game. He was a great athlete and a good swimmer but the conditions and his injury worked against him. Another thing I learned from all this is that in very cold water, bodies often sink. Hidden Lake is VERY deep and while the Coast Guard searched the next day, they found neither Mike nor your dad. Just the boat washed up and one of the parkas.
When we went out, the lake was fairly calm, but the wind shifted and the surface went from pretty smooth to large whitecaps very quickly. Mike, who was running the boat, headed for shore but the small engine wasn't enough, and despite your dad an I bailing as fast as we could, we got swamped and capsized. No life jackets, just floatation cushions which were swept away when the boat capsized. We decided it was better to try to make it to shore than stick with the overturned boat and freeze. I shed my parka as it was too heavy to swim in; your dad did the same. Mike did not. We also decided that nobody was to play a hero, as the conditions were heavily stacked agains us and any heroics would be just stupid and pointless. It would be almost miraculous if any of us survived, let along trying to rescue someone. It was a tough but necessary decision.
When I got to shore, I had to walk back to Mike's truck, then broke into it to get a sleeping bag to wrap myself. All I was wearing was a cotton shirt, jeans, and sneakers, having shed the parka to swim. I was literally at death's door from hyptothermia and the doctor's later told me there's no way I should have survived. But I did. I walked out the access road to the main highway where a trucker picked me up and took me to the state police in Soldotna. Two guys we all worked with came from Elmendorf AFB to get me and drive me back.
I went to see both Mike's wife, Karen, and your mother the next morning. Both were in shock, needless to say. I'm not sure if anything I told them sunk in. After that, I saw them only at the memorial service, but was kept away from them for my own good (at least that's what the AF thought).
The only thing your family had was my name from a newspaper clipping (I think). They tracked me down in the pre-internet age after years of effort. One of your relatives in Michigan found my uncle, who put him in contact with my Dad and got my address. He sent me a letter telling me they'd been trying to track me down. By that time, I'd retired and moved back to Pa. I called him immediately, and he put me in contact with your grandmother. I called her the next day and we talked for several hours. I sent her a letter, telling her pretty much what I'm repeating here, and she shared it with the rest of the family. A few weeks later I got a very heartfelt letter from your aunt (I still have it) and we talked as well. Later, your grandmother called and invited me to your uncle's wedding in North Carolina (Charlotte, I think), and I went. I met your aunts, uncle, and grandmother; cried a lot and sat down and talked for hours. After that it was occassional phone calls and Christmas cards until you grandmother died. I'm forever grateful they found me.
I found this website quite by accident. Tomorrow is 4 October and is the 47th anniversary of the accident. It's a very tough day for me, but nothing compared to what the families have to endure. I think about it every day. I have symptoms similar to PTSD, but wasn't diagnosed and treated until many years later. Medically, I recovered very quickly....psychologically, not so much.
So that's the whole, truthful story. I hope it answers some of your questions.
Sincerely, Harold Thorne
