Aviation Wrecks of Southern California

I have been asked many times “when are you going to write a book?”

I was gently prodded in December 2024 when my wonderful wife “published” a book with some of my diving trips and pictures and gifted it to me as a Christmas present.

I’ve been thinking about what would make a book that was unique, interesting, and more than “just another wreck book” and enjoyable to read outside the core community of wreck divers. I also wanted something that had constraints and boundaries such that it would be achievable and more than a compendium of my diving trips and pictures.

I’ve spent a lot of time pondering the right theme for that book.

In that process, I’ve met with more than a few editors and publishers over the past 6 months. I got connected to Diane @ Porto Press through Rod Macdonald (how I met Rod is an interesting story but I’ll leave that for later).

I’m excited to announce that I’m now actively writing a book under contract with Porto Press!

The book is more than a compendium of random wrecks in Southern California.

I believe that there are more aviation wrecks of a wider variety in Southern California than anywhere else in the world (and I don’t state that lightly). Each wreck has a unique story behind it — especially aviation wrecks. This book is about those stories and how we sometimes get connected with families of the pilots. They are often unsung heroes.

A portion of the synopsis I provided to potential publishers summarizes it well:

There are stories of heroism such as the pilot who took a B-36 out to ocean to avoid crashing into land and potentially killing many innocent people. There are stories of bravery as a test pilot ejected from a Douglas F4D Skyray at 650 mph and lived to tell the tale.

Learn about the Navy radioman who was on his delayed honeymoon in San Diego when he crashed in a SBD “Slow But Deadly” Dauntless. Something went terribly wrong when he deployed a practice target flag and he died in the accident leaving a grieving widow. We get connected with one of his relatives through our reporting of the crash site.

Follow the clues as we struggle to identify a Sea King helicopter that we believed was the famous “Helo 66” only to discover the true identity and the tragedy. We meet the pilot that crashed the helicopter and hear firsthand about the co-pilot who died and left a widow that was three months pregnant. We later re-unite them and relatives during a visit to the crash site. 

Discover the P-38 that crashed twice prior to the third and final crash when the pilot was on a “Skip Bombing” practice mission off Solana Beach. We uncover the identity of the pilot and find that he flew 72 combat missions, was awarded the Purple Heart, and lived to be 98 years old.

I will be taking fewer dive trips this year (if any) and instead working on better photos and photogrammetry models of the local wrecks. I’ve already started that process with dives last week on the Marissa on the Solana Beach P-38 and the F4 Phantom off Torrey Pines.

I also expect that more of my writing energy will be spent on the book and not the blog; however, I plan to also provide regular updates on the blog so stay tuned. I’ll tag all of them with “#awosc” (Aviation Wrecks of Southern California) on the site.

Thanks

I usually finish my posts with a section to thank the many people involved in the project.

In this case, it is very tough to do that. There are so many things that happen behind the scenes before I publish a post.

I would be remiss to not thank a few key people who have been instrumental in finding and identifying the amazing aviation wrecks here in Southern California and encouraging me to write a book:

• My amazing and supportive wife. Not only does she support my wreck diving, but she was instrumental in editing and providing feedback on the sample chapter I sent to Diane @ Porto Press.
• My dive & research partner, Tyler Stalter. Many of the wrecks in the book are directly due to his dedication and expertise in finding and identifying new wrecks. This book would not have happened without my friendship and partnership with Tyler.
• Without a dive platform you trust with your life, I wouldn’t do many of these dives. A big thanks to Danny Graham @ Triton Diving, Lora and Chris @ Marissa Charters, and Ray Arntz & Kyaa Heller at Sundiver International.
• Rod Macdonald for his encouragement and multiple introductions to people in the publishing world. Rod has a new book on Bikini Atoll coming out soon!
• Diane @ Porto Press- Thank you for your trust in me. I’m excited about our partnership.
• Diving Partners – There are way too many to list here. For now, the “you know who you are” will hopefully suffice but trust that I appreciate your support and for always being there.