Minnesota Spirit Quest: Saint Paul’s Lutheran Cemetery
The cache is not located near a grave... If you find a fallen US flag, please stick it back in the ground at a veteran’s grave. As always, please be respectful and cache in, trash out. Also, please only search for cache during daylight hours.
You are looking for the grave of Air Force Sergeant Russell K Gerbracht, a member of the 2nd Army Air Force (AAF) Emergency Rescue Unit. The rescue of airmen forced down at sea became for the AAF a problem of increasing importance in the course of World War II. This was especially true in the Pacific, where the first desperate fighting took place and where the AAF eventually committed no less than five air forces to operations which regularly demanded over-water flight, often for great distances.
Gerbracht was a crewmember on a 2nd AAF B-17G Flying Fortress. On September 1, 1945 the B-17 took off from Morotai at 8:00pm on an operational flight bound for Merauke. This B-17 crashed into the sea in the vicinity of Okaba off Merauke. The cause of the crash remains unknown.
After the crash, darkness, strong winds and rough seas prevented any immediate search from being mounted. Over the next three days three bodies washed ashore in the vicinity and were buried at Okaba Cemetery. Later, other bodies washed ashore, including Gerbracht’s. In total, native people in the area recovered the bodies of 8 of the 9 crew members. The entire crew was officially declared dead the day of the mission.
At the gravesite, on what day was Gerbracht born? Let this be AB
Then:
N 44 43. (305+AB)
W 94 28.(680+AB)