Benjamin A. Bottoms  Benjamin Bottoms was a United States Coast Guard radioman who died while attempting to rescue the crew of a USAAF bomber that had crashed-landed in Greenland in November 1942. Bottoms was the radioman of the USCGC "Northland"'s Grumman J2F-4 Duck floatplane. When a B-17 bomber crash landed near "Northland" his aircraft was assigned to search for it. Bottoms's pilot Lieutenant John A. Pritchard sighted the bomber, and landed as close to the wreck as possible—four miles away. Pritchard and Bottoms were able to assist two of the injured bomber crew to their plane, and take them back to "Northland". However, on their second rescue visit they encountered bad weather, and crashed. It took seventy-five years to locate their bodies. Bottoms was born in Georgia in 1913, grew up on a farm near Marietta, Georgia, and graduated from Marietta High School in 1931. He enlisted in the United States Coast Guard in October 1932. In 1934 and 1935 he served on USCGC "Ossipee" and USCGC "Guthrie". He was then able to complete radioman training, and served aboard USCGC "Thetis", USCGC "Harriet Lane" and USCGC "Ossipee". Bottoms was married on October 10, 1937. He received a shore assignment to Coast Guard Air Station Salem, from October 1939 to June 1941. He was then assigned to "Northland" as a radioman for its float plane. Bottoms and his pilot Pritchard succeeded in landing on Greenland's icecap, on November 22, 1942, rescuing the three surviving crew members of an RCAF plane. This was the first time a Coast Guard aircraft had landed on the icecap. On November 28, 1942 the pair were able to make one successful landing near a USAAF B-17 that had crash landed on the icecap, and had brought the two most injured crew members to "Northland". Prior to their second landing an overland expedition to the downed B-17 had experienced its own disaster, with a sled falling into a crevasse. When Bottoms and Pritchard landed, and learned of this additional disaster they planned to take one more crew member to "Northland", and return with "Northland" crew members to help search for members of the overland expedition. They took off successfully, but "Northland" radioman heard their transmissions fade as they were struck by bad weather.