Following in their father's footsteps: sons visit Port au Choix crash-landing site 77 years later
It was an overcast afternoon in 1945 at the end of World War II.
Flying high above Newfoundland and Labrador and running out of fuel, the crew of a B-24 Liberator airplane named the Bad Penny were on their way home to the United States.
It was here, above the Atlantic Ocean, that things went horribly wrong.
The crew were headed to Happy Valley-Goose Bay to refuel when they flew off course.
"We've got to do something," yelled Capt. Thomas C. Anderson as the fuel light flashed dangerously low.
Panic grew among the plane's 10 crew members and 10 passengers, most of them unsung heroes like cooks and bakers.
But not everyone was worried. According to reports, 18-year-old radio operator Emidio Galie showed no signs of fear.
The former captain of his high school football team had several combat missions under his belt. Galie, barely old enough to drive a car, searched for a safe place to land the plane, and yelled to the crew, "Calm down, we're going to get you out of this."
Through the static silence he found one sound of hope, looked over at Anderson and said, "I got one steady signal, skipper. Home in on that." Moments later, the pilot crash-landed the plane built for battles, belly-up on a wild and remote patch of land known as the Barrens, just outside Port au Choix on the Northern Peninsula. Everyone survived.
Fast-forward 77 years later, and it's an autumn afternoon in the seaside community. Things look much different from back in 1945. But for Joseph and Kevin Galie, who just arrived from Philadelphia and Munich, it is just how their father described, welcoming and incredibly beautiful.
After the war Emidio Galie was a physical therapist for disabled children in Philadelphia. He had three sons: Joseph, Kevin and Tim. Galie died in his 60s but dreamed of going back to the town where his crew crash-landed their plane. The brothers came to fulfil their father's bucket-list wish. "My father talked about this crash-landing as much, if not more than his bombing missions in Germany," recalls Kevin Galie.
"Today is a dream come true," beams 80-year-old Stella Mailman, who welcomed the brothers with a display of what happened on that day in 1945, a traditional meal and the kind of hospitality rural Newfoundland and Labrador is known for.
Mailman, like many children, ran for cover back in 1945. At the time, Port au Choix was a quiet village. There was no electricity, but there were root cellars, wood stoves and horses. Several people thought their tiny town was under attack.
In the years since, Mailman researched and gathered facts on the wartime crash-landing. But it was local journalist Sylvia Gould who connected with Galie's youngest son, Kevin, over Facebook to bring the two sides of the story together.
"It's wonderful," says Kevin Galie. "Coming to Port au Choix is the last chapter of celebrating my father's life," he said, looking out at the bright blue ocean.
After the crash, the army ordered the Bad Penny burned, a formality put in place to prevent future searchers from mistaking that crash with another. Miraculously, pieces of the plane defied the decades and are scattered throughout the Barrens. Now, in a town known for its rich history, there are plans to build a museum to honour the crew and their story.
"It's quite amazing, 'cause not too many people remember the story. It's almost lost in history, so it's good to be restored," says resident Hunter Spence. The teenager has unearthed bits of the wreckage and located its turbocharger, and has plans to display it in a museum.
Standing on a wharf overlooking the ocean, oldest son Joseph Galie says retracing his father's bravery is an emotional journey he will never forget.
"I think he was the kind of guy who would have went around and thanked people. That was the kind of guy he was."
