American aircraft salvage company
A and T Recovery (Allan Olson and Taras Lyssenko) is an American company that has the primary purpose to locate and recover once lost World War II United States Navy aircraft for presentation to the American public. They have recovered nearly forty such aircraft, mainly from Lake Michigan. The aircraft were lost during the aircraft carrier qualification conducted out of the former Naval Air Station Glenview that was located north of Chicago, Illinois. The Navy had used two ships, the and the , to qualify thousands of pilots.
History.
A and T Recovery began their recovery efforts in the 1980s.
As part of the aircraft collection of the US Navy, the aircraft they retrieved are managed by the National Naval Aviation Museum, which is under the direction of the Naval History and Heritage Command.
Funding.
10 USC § 2572 (b), a section of United States Code, allows the Museums of the US Department of Defense to exchange condemned and/or obsolete military material for similar materials, equipment, search and recovery services, restoration services, and educational programs.
During the 1990s, the Director of the National Naval Aviation Museum used this section in law to fund the work of the firm along with the restoration of the rescued aircraft. The aircraft located and recovered over the recent years have been funded by private donations thru the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation, Inc. which oversees the contracting for all activities of the effort.
Lake Michigan projects.
Historically significant U.S. Navy aircraft recovered include the Douglas SBD Dauntless Dive Bomber Bureau Number 2106 which survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway, the only Vought SB2U Vindicator Scout-Bomber known to exist, the Grumman F6F Hellcat Fighter Bureau Number 25910, and an extremely rare early "Bird Cage" Vought F4U-1 Corsair.
Some of their other rescued aircraft include:
Along with aircraft, the firm has also located shipwrecks; the most notable is the German Type UC III submarine , a World War I U-boat. At the end of World War I the German Navy was forced to surrender many of their war ships to the World War I Allies. The records indicate that as many as 172 submarines (U-boats, Unterseeboote) were surrendered. Many of these vessels were brought to Harwich, England, then "allocated" or "assigned" to the different Allied countries, with 6 going to the United States of America. The UC-97 was one of these vessels; she was brought to the US and toured the Great Lakes under the command of Charles A. Lockwood. He detailed his experience with the submarine in his book "Down To the Sea in Subs, My Life in the U.S. Navy".
On the morning of June 7, 1921 the UC-97 was sunk by the training ship U.S.S. Wilmette, formerly the Eastland. The firm located the resting point of the vessel in 1992.
"Thomas Hume" shipwreck.
The "Thomas Hume" was a Great Lakes schooner used to carry lumber. She left Chicago May 21, 1891, but never arrived at the destination port. The firm located her nearly intact about fifteen miles off of Chicago.
Early Holocene Forest (Olson Site).
The most unusual find of the firm is the Early Holocene Forest. In 1989, while searching for aircraft in southern Lake Michigan the firm located a number of tree stumps intact on the lake's floor. The stumps were the remains of a deciduous forest that radiocarbon dating showed to be over 8,000 years old.
Beyond Lake Michigan.
San Diego TBD Devastator.
One of the long sought after historic aircraft that there is a desire to be added to the collection of the National Naval Aviation Museum is the Douglas TBD Devastator. The firm located one of these aircraft, TBD-1 BuNo.0377, lost off the San Diego coast.
San Diego SB2C Helldiver.
In 2009, a sport fisherman, Duane Johnson, saw an airplane on his fish finding electronics while traversing Lower Otay Reservoir. The airplane was a Curtiss SB2C Helldiver that had ditched in the reservoir because of engine failure while conducting dive bombing practice toward the end of World War II. In August 2010 the firm, with the support of San Diego Park Rangers, removed the aircraft and delivered it to the National Naval Aviation Museum where it awaits restoration and public display.
D. Blan Stewart.
On the afternoon of October 31, 1988, D. Blan Stewart, flying a Piper Archer single engine aircraft, disappeared over Lake Martin, Alabama. Soon after, the FBI began a manhunt believing he had faked his death to avoid prosecution. In November 1990 A and T Recovery located the aircraft at the bottom of Lake Martin; Stewart's remains were in the cockpit.
Film.
In 2012, the Pritzker Military Museum and Library produced, for WTTW Chicago, an episode of "Citizen Soldier," where a major portion of the program examines Lyssenko's life work in recovering lost Navy World War II aircraft from Lake Michigan.
References.
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