After reading Mitchell Zuckoff’s Lost in Shangri-La, one big question lingered as I hungered for more out of this miraculous saga of survival. How did this Wonder Woman, Tarzan and Indiana Jones adventure get “lost” in American history?
The New York Times bestseller chronicles the true story of a U.S. Army plane on a sightseeing mission that slammed into an uncharted valley in Dutch New Guinea in May 1945, toward the end of World War II. Only three of the 24 soldiers survived the crash.
The survivors included Corporal Margaret Hastings, who “considered herself an independent young woman who, as she put it, drank liquor, but not too much, and liked the boys, but not too much.” The press dubbed Hastings as “Queen of Shangri-La.”
The leader of the survivors was Lieutenant John McCollom, whose twin brother died in the crash.
Although Tech Sergeant Kenneth Decker survived the crash, he suffered a life-threatening head injury.
Zuckoff uses McCollom and Hastings’ journal entries from the time to piece together the story of their survival and rescue.
“How Decker got to his feet I shall never know,” Hastings wrote. “But he did, and staggered uncomplainingly after McCollom, determined to do his share of the work.”
Hastings herself was suffering from third-degree burns and gangrene developing on her legs.
“Fearing that her legs would have to be amputated, and that Decker’s infections would fatally poison his blood, we were all wondering if the medics would reach us in time,” Hastings’ journal reads.
“New Guinea was home to more missing airplanes than any country on earth,” Zuckoff writes. The treacherous, uncharted terrain made it nearly impossible to enter or leave the area on foot.
Adding to the survivors’ dread: Japanese soldiers were lurking somewhere in the jungle.
Ignorance about the valley’s indigenous occupants gave the survivors yet another problem to think about. However, after establishing contact with one of the tribes, a cross-cultural exchange and friendship developed even before rescue plans began.
Hastings’ journal documents the native’s culture, describing their dress and religious practices, as well as the important role loyalty played in their lives.
The natives greeted close friends or relations, by saying “Hal-loak-nak,” which translates literally to “Let me eat your feces.” Its true meaning – “I will do the unthinkable for you.”
About a week after the crash, rescue planes spotted the survivors.
The rescuers had “no maps, no safe drop zone, no predicting the natives’ response, and no exit plan,” Zuckoff quotes Captain Earl Walters as warning his troops at the time. Nevertheless, every paratrooper in the survivors’ base volunteered to jump into Shangri-La. Walter eventually chose 10 troops for the mission.
After several rescue plans were discussed and subsequently discarded, it was determined that the only feasible plan was to land a glider into the valley. The rescuers would then use a plane flying about 20 feet off the ground to snatch the glider back into the air – which had to be done three times due to the glider’s weight limit.
Austrian actor and filmmaker Alexander Cann parachuted on-site to document the survivors’ two-month ordeal and their ensuing rescue. (Cann’s connection to San Quentin — he played a prison guard in the 1937 movie, San Quentin, starring Humphrey Bogart.)
Even though the survivors established friendly relations with the natives during their stay, “the outsiders’ presence had disturbed their routines, their wars in particular,” Zuckoff writes.
While finishing his research for the book in February 2010, Zuckoff saw a young native man wearing a t-shirt displaying President Barack Obama.
“Asked if he knew the identity of the man on his shirt, he smiled shyly and said no,” Zuckoff writes.
In the decades following the rescue mission, Western influences flooded into the secluded valley, forever changing the lifestyle of its inhabitants, according to Zuckoff.
“They were warriors and independent people,” Zuckoff concludes. “Now they’re serfs in their own country.”
