Shaker Heights local helps crew search for wreckage of famous WWII plane

Steve Kleiman of Shaker Heights is currently 8,600 miles from his hometown after helping to discover the wreckage of a famous World War II aircraft last month. The wreckage is the remains of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter plane that Major Richard I. Bong used to become America’s most successful flying ace, scoring 40 confirmed aerial kills.

On March 24, 1944, the P-38 Marge developed mechanical problems while being flown by another pilot, Lt. Thomas Malone. Malone was able to parachute out and return to action, while the plane crashed inland off the northern coast of New Guinea.

Bong later received the Medal of Honor from General Douglas MacArthur. After his return, he married Marge, but died soon after while testing a new jet plane in California.

Kleiman discovered the wreckage of the Marge together with the nonprofit organization Pacific Wrecks and its founder Justin Taylan. The team discovered the plane in May on a jungle-covered hill in the Madang province of Papua New Guinea.

Stephen Langel of Ideastream Public Media spoke with Kleiman about his experience.

LONG: Steve, how did your youth in Shaker Heights lead you to the jungles of Papua New Guinea?

KLEIMAN: Instead of going to Florida like others, my parents took us to the Civil War battlefields on vacation and gave me and my two sisters a sense of history. Something from Antietam and Gettysburg has stuck with us.

LONG: How did you come to work with Pacific Wrecks and director Justin Taylan?

KLEIMAN: In 2004, I sneaked into a private D-Day commemoration and, lo and behold, at that event, I crossed paths with another guy who had also sneaked into the same event. We’ve been working together ever since.

LONG: What role do you play in the team when working with Taylan, your photographer Joel Carillet and your local guide Norman Nayak?

KLEIMAN: My job as project manager is to create space for professionals like Joel to do their jobs, for Norman to coordinate with the villagers, for Justin to do his job, and for all the experts we bring in and work with, like forensics, DNA experts, unexploded ordnance, my job is to create space for them to do their jobs.

LONG: How does it feel to be there and do this work?

KLEIMAN: It’s always exciting to climb up a mountain and see a B-24. And you have to dig up a whole village to even see it. I mean, it’s a thrill.

LONG: You’ve been doing this for 20 years now. Why does this work mean so much to you?

KLEIMAN: What touches me most is the thought that these families, whose grandfathers have left, can come to terms with their past. Nobody knows what happened to them. There are 72,000 missing people from World War II – 72,000 of them never came home. For me, it is always a great honor to help these families come to terms with their past.

LONG: You say that the discovery of this plane has something to do with the future. How is that possible?

KLEIMAN: What bridges connect future generations who share this common heritage and history? It’s so amazing that Papua New Guineans in all their villages have their own view of World War II. And we in Cleveland, Ohio, have our view. They’re both right. They’re both part of history.

LONG: What has changed as a result of this discovery?

KLEIMAN: The cool thing about this trip is that we have the privilege of being involved in establishing the first sister city relationship between Papua New Guinea and Madang Province, based in Richard I. Bong’s hometown of Poplar, Wisconsin.

LONG: What does this agreement represent in terms of a new relationship?

KLEIMAN: What it really means is that two cities on opposite sides of the world share the idea that there is something worth pursuing and exploiting together. It is the shared legacy of World War II.

LONG: And what possible long-term impact do you think this agreement will have?

KLEIMAN: We hope that this will be a model for the future and that World War II will provide the basis for connecting and creating more sister cities for Papua New Guinea. It’s a framework to build relationships with people on the other side of the world over something real and just use that as a basis for all sorts of good things that could come from it.