We Thought We Heard the Angels Sing - a Historical Account and a Living Memoir

In November of 1942, WWI ace Eddie Rickenbacker was lost at sea near the island of Tuvalu (Nukufetau, Ellice Islands). For more than 20-odd days, Rickenbacker and the crew of the B17 bomber were adrift at sea in harrowing conditions and shark infested waters with little food and even less drinkable water. This historical account is an often-overlooked story amongst the large canvas that is World War II. But low and behold, more than 40 years after the event, the story was brought back to the national spotlight in a most unusual way.

The account was the subject of a 1947 book entitled We Thought We Heard the Angels Sing by Lt. James Whittaker. Whittaker was a member of the ill-fated trip along with Rickenbacker and the B-17 crew. The text details the true story of their plight at sea, and their eventual rescue. Meanwhile they did wash ashore at the island Tuvalu (near Samoa and Fiji - between Hawaii and Australia), and began an ongoing relationship with the country and its natives, before being rescued by American forces. The story of their ordeal at sea would seem implausible at first reading...if it were not true. But it is. And the story was just getting started...

Fast-forward ahead in time more than 40 years...

In the 1980s, Mrs. Suzanne Kelly, a 6^th grade teacher at Meeker Elementary in Ames, IA often read "We Thought We Heard The Angels Sing" to her class each year. During the 1984-85 school year, Kelly's sixth grade undertook a project. They were eventually able to find and locate the surviving members of the crew (Whitaker, Captain William Cherry, and Sgt. Jimmy Reynolds) , and bring them together for a reunion. The event captured the attention of local and national media, and brought a new light to this poignant and forgotten tale of American history.

The following school year of 1985-86, Kelly's sixth grade class under took a new project related to the story project. The time, the class actually wrote pen pal letters to their student counterparts in Tuvalu. The students corresponded with their new friends for an entire semester. This event also garnered much regional attention. Surely, this wasn't your average school year! J

Epilogue:

The Whitaker book is long since out-of-print, but one still can find the occasional used copy of it around somewhere. I was a member of the second class mention those many years ago...I still have the documents and some photos of the event in a tucked-away old photo album. It was one my fondest memories of my young educational life.