USD grad student and teacher recovers lost servicemen

Marine Maj. Derek Abbey can be seen in the SOLES building taking classes for his graduate program in Education Leadership or teaching Emerging Leadership to freshmen, but what most of the USD community doesn't see is the work he does off campus.
Abbey is a Marine who has served in Afghanistan and on other deployments as recently as last year. But aside from protecting American freedom, he is involved with an organization called The BentProp Project.
The BentProp Project is dedicated to finding lost planes and their crews in the western Pacific that were declared missing in action during World War II. The island of Palau is the place of focus for Dr. Pat Scannon, the leader of the group, and his team. The BentProp is a non-profit and completely volunteer based group that recruits volunteers by invitation only. Abbey became a part of the team in 2007. He began to do research for the project and went on an expedition in the same year.
Many people do not understand the purpose of this group and the service that it provides to the families that lack information about what happened to their loved ones.
"Some might think that because of the time that has passed since these American servicemen have been lost that some of the emotions would have faded through time and generations," Abbey said. "We have found that to not be the case at all. There is a question mark and hole in that family that is passed down from generation to generation."
Abbey said that his first find was an emotional one. The plane he helped BentProp discover was a Marine Corsair, and the Marine found was a pilot, just like Abbey. Abbey said it is very hard to describe the emotion that he felt at the time, but he remembers telling himself, "semper fidelis." This is the motto of the Marines that means "always faithful." For Abbey, saying it was to think to himself, "Finally, finally we are going to get this Marine back home."
The organization researches  11 months of the year to try and pinpoint missing planes through archives, existing data, interviewing locals, and using new equipment, such as a side-scanning sonar system that scans the lagoon floor that surrounds the island of Palau.
The difficulty with the expeditions is often the terrain. The jungle is dense and has grown over any remains of planes that are there. There is a lagoon that is  180t o 200 feet deep, and BentProp can search the floor safely. Once they get outside of the lagoon, the ocean floor extends thousands of feet and evidence is difficult to find with the resources available. Abbey, along with the BentProp group, believes that there are about 80 planes yet to be found around the island of Palau. Once the BentProp team finds a plane, they work with a group called JPAC (Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command) that recovers the remains of the planes and the Marines and then contacts families for DNA testing. This process can bring closure to the families of loved ones lost. It is a very long process, but it is very successful and the end result is often relief and satisfaction for families.
Abbey recently attended a memorial service for Army Air Force soldiers found in Palau. They received the appropriate burial and the families were able to celebrate lost lives, knowing once and for all what had happened.
"It is simply our way of saying thank you to those families that lost loved ones," Abbey said. "These servicemen have not been forgotten." He said of the memorial service, "It is a void in family history that is filled."
More information about the project is online at BentProp.org.