Books by Tom (Institute for Religion Politics and Society Australian Catholic University) Barnes

Washington orders military to develop hurricane-warning system. Navy crews back from Pacific chosen for task. Squadron 114 forms at Masters Field, Miami where they train and track storms from Barbados in the Eastern Caribbean to Honduras and Belize in the west. Then in September Hurricane # IX takes aim at Miami and the Hurricane Hunter's base. The storm hits them with hurricane winds clocked at 139 mph. We also hear the drama, from island people, over short-wave radio, through panic-stricken voices as they describe their own doom. Lost in the Bermuda Triangle. Flight 19 made up of five TBM Avengers with fourteen airmen aboard take off from NAS Ft. Lauderdale at 2:00 pm on the afternoon of December 5, 1945. They are on a routine navigation, bombing and strafing exercise. Flight leader Lt. Charles Taylor takes a trailing position with one of the students in the lead. At 3:40 pm a muddled distress call is heard from the student leader. Lt. Taylor takes the lead, but is disoriented-believes they are over the Florida Keys, when in fact they are likely over the Bahamas Banks. We follow Flight 19 minute by minute as the tragedy unfolds.