KO'OLAU RANGE — A chunk of a right wing from a World War II fighter aircraft juts out of this windswept and isolated slope, just north of the H-3 tunnel through the Ko'olaus.

Downslope about 40 feet rests the jumbled remnants of the left wing.

Somewhere in between lies the decades-old hope of 86-year-old Myrtle Tice that her brother, Navy Ensign Harry Warnke, the pilot of the plane, can get a decent burial.

"I really think my parents would liked to have had his remains," Tice said.

Her parents died thinking their only son had crashed at sea. The Arizona resident still would like to bury her brother by their graves in Westville, Ind.

The Hawai'i-based Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, which searches the world over for service members killed or missing in war, examined the upper Halawa Valley site in 1999 and a propeller blade, and some other items were recovered.

Environmental and cultural concerns were only the latest obstacles to the recovery of Warnke — a delay that began when his command reported him missing at sea — but since July 21, a dozen civilian and military members with the accounting command have been on-site, trying to do right by a fellow service member.

On June 15, 1944, the 23-year-old Navy reservist took off from Barbers Point Naval Air Station with seven other planes to practice dive-bombing at Kapoho Point, near what is now the Marine Corps base at Kane'ohe Bay.

When Warnke didn't return, it was presumed that he crashed. Two days later, his unit identified the site. A June 19, 1944, U.S. Pacific Fleet report said a "piece of left leg was buried at scene of crash."

Yesterday, the accounting command team bounced around in a small helicopter to get to the remote site and slipped and slogged their way through mud to reach the crashed F6F-3 Hellcat.

They dug in a ravine with pickaxes and shovels and sometimes with hands around the wreckage, piling dirt that could yield pieces of Warnke's bones onto a tarp for helicopter transport out.

At a spot near Wheeler Army Air Field, the first slingload of dirt could be delivered today or tomorrow, and a Hawai'i Army National Guard twin-rotor Chinook helicopter yesterday tested the maneuver space in the ravine and adjacent valley.

ALL JOIN IN

The accounting command team, which included a forensic anthropologist, mortuary affairs specialist and explosive ordnance disposal technician among its ranks, all dug, and all were covered in mud when they left the site at about 3:30 p.m.

"To me, it's the most rewarding thing I can do in the military," said Staff Sgt. Chris Flahive, 35, from El Paso, Texas.

"If I'm having a hard time, I just think of the family members back home, hoping and praying we bring (their loved ones) back home."

Marine Staff Sgt. Arthur Santoianai, 35, said the digging is menial "but this serves a higher purpose."

"It's a combination of respect and kind of a competitiveness (with other team members) because you are on a treasure hunt," the Rochester, N.Y., man said.

Santoianai, an explosive ordnance disposal technician, pulled 800 rounds of 50-cal. machine gun rounds from a magazine in the right wing. The aircraft was capable of carrying 1,200 rounds per wing, he said.

The team works at the site until about 3 p.m., when daily rains make further efforts impossible.

Cloud cover delayed yesterday's series of helicopter flights to the site at about 2,500 feet elevation until late morning, and a foggy mist threatened to force the team to camp in the windswept valley where the landscape is largely grasses, ferns and fan palms.

Digging at the base of the right wing, the team came across what might be a cooler for the engine.

"Wonderful," was the response of forensic anthropologist James Pokines. It was a potential clue.

"Somewhere within 4 to 5 meters of the engine is where the body should be," Pokines said. "One suspects that he would still be buried in the wreckage if they couldn't find him."

The team is removing dirt in an area less than 30 feet by 30 feet in an area roughly falling between the two wing segments. Some remains may have washed down to the second wing's location.

Pokines, who has been with the accounting command for 6 1/2 years and has been to countries including North Korea, Greenland and Tibet, said the excavation is "easy."

"It's just the environment is so fragile up there, we have to protect it," he said, adding the area is home to endangered plants.

LITTLE IMPACT

In foreign countries, where most searches take place, there are no such constraints, he said. The teams also usually hire 50 to 100 workers and have a base camp near the site.

An environmental assessment concluded there would be no significant impact. The accounting command said it plans to replant native vegetation.

After so many years of waiting for a recovery effort, Tice, Warnke's only sibling, is a little exasperated.

"I shouldn't publish what I think ... (but) I think it's about time after 62 years," she said.

Two days after the crash in 1944, the small amount of human remains that were found were buried at the crash site.

"It's a big mystery in between as to what actually happened," Pokines said. "His squadron apparently shipped out that week and something happened and he apparently wasn't recovered."

In the early 1990s, an aircraft salvager and historian found the crash site, revealing to Tice that her brother hadn't crashed at sea as her parents were told.

No human remains have yet been found on the recovery mission that's expected to be wrapped up by the end of the month. Already, though, team members daily have to work in between heavy cloud cover, which makes getting to the site difficult, and frequent rain. Rainy weather last week postponed a lot of work.

It will take several days for the airlifted wet earth to dry out so it can be screened for human remains and possessions. A biological profile for factors like age, sex, ancestry, stature and trauma type will be conducted if remains are found, and dental comparisons and DNA testing also are possible.

Santoianai, the Marine explosive disposal technician, said, "I never got to see the faces of family members when they receive what we found and got that type of closure — but I hope it's there."

Tice hopes she sees that day.

"I'm 86, and I need to do this before I die," she said.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.