Hidden Campsite FOUND. Missing WW2 Airman. 🇺🇸

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]It's really shallow. Is your water level real down?

[00:00:03]>> No, ours is up actually.

[00:00:06]>> Shallow.

[00:00:09]>> Hey gang, we are in Pres, Iowa. Well, we're still in Wisconsin. This is almost Michigan, isn't it?

[00:00:15]>> Uh, almost.

[00:00:16]>> This is Joe.

[00:00:17]>> Good morning.

[00:00:18]>> Joe is the father of >> one of our friends, Jacob Paple Top.

[00:00:24]Remember, we did the lumberjack cemetery here in Prescy. He uh suggested it.

[00:00:30]Well, he just turned 21 and there was lots of beer drinking going on here.

[00:00:36]>> Come on. Come on, buddy.

[00:00:38]>> And anyway, uh Joe is going to take the boys are all still asleep. So, this is Joe's place. He's going to take me out.

[00:00:44]We're on Armor Lake and Joe is going to take Cody and I out to an island. A really there's a World War II veteran memorial.

[00:00:54]>> This would be a Oh my gosh. Senate there. All right, Cody, come on.

[00:00:59]>> Stop fooling around. Let's go this way.

[00:01:03]Cody uh just wants to do what she wants to do, and that is swim. All right. Up, up, up. Come on. Let's go.

[00:01:10]All right, we'll get her in the boat here. Come on. Let's go over here. This way. Oh, you're in the boat already.

[00:01:17]Come on.

[00:01:19]Come on. There we go. Now, stay in the boat.

[00:01:23]All right, I'll close the gate.

[00:01:31]All right. So, Joe's going to take us on a little ride here while I uh I'll clean some of these up.

[00:01:39]Oh, there's some uh >> there's some left. I'll have a drink. Oh my gosh. Can you imagine?

[00:01:45]All right.

[00:01:46]>> This is not true.

[00:01:49]>> They really messed this boat up last night. Yep. The boys were boys were partying.

[00:01:56]Might take a second to start.

[00:01:57]>> Oh, that's okay.

[00:02:00]>> Oh, what a beautiful morning in Wisconsin, guys.

[00:02:08]>> FAU, Florida Atlantic. Let's go.

[00:02:15][Laughter] >> You had a choke.

[00:02:23]Looks pretty slow.

[00:02:24]>> All right.

[00:02:25]>> Running a little rough here.

[00:02:26]>> We'll catch up when we get to the island.

[00:02:28]>> But then there's I'll show you a part over here.

[00:02:32]>> All right.

[00:02:32]>> This is Bill's Island.

[00:02:34]>> So, we're at Bill's Island and Joe was just telling me that boys used to come and swim at this beach. There's a lot of overgrown trees there, but I guess it has a a comfy sandy bottom on your feet. And back in 1930, there was uh Bill and his family would come up here.

[00:02:59]This was where they would hang out and they would camp on this island right here. They call it Bill's Island.

[00:03:07]Billon fought in World War II. So, we are going to go there's a senate of sorts and we're going to I guess a plaque or something. We'll go go on shore and then I'll tell you the story.

[00:03:27]>> Gas can I? It's one of those newer gas caps.

[00:03:31]>> So, back in there is where they used to camp.

[00:03:34]>> Yeah. Well, I'll show you here. Yeah.

[00:03:37]>> And there is a I guess a sign or a senotap over here.

[00:03:48]Careful.

[00:03:49]>> Cody can't wait to get in the water.

[00:03:52]She's sticking her head out.

[00:03:56]>> Can you peek up front, Ron? Just me move that chair and just see if I'm getting in real shallow.

[00:04:01]>> All right. Can you trim it?

[00:04:02]>> Yeah, I got it all.

[00:04:04]>> Okay.

[00:04:08]>> If you look, I think you'll see the sign right here now.

[00:04:11]>> So, right in this little inlet here.

[00:04:14]>> Yeah, I see a little sand.

[00:04:17]There's a way to >> Well, you don't have to pull Oh, I see.

[00:04:20]Yeah, there looks like a trail or something.

[00:04:22]>> Yeah, I can see the picnic table here.

[00:04:24]>> Oh, yeah. Look at that.

[00:04:27]So, this is where they would camp out as boys. There's like a little trail here.

[00:04:32]We'll see if we can get the pontoon boat in.

[00:04:41]All right, Cody. We might get our feet wet here.

[00:04:46]Oh, nice. Nice job. Look at that.

[00:04:52]>> Yeah. We're going to have to get our feet wet. I'm going to take my uh take my shoes off here.

[00:04:59]>> All right.

[00:05:00]Go, Katie. Go, Cody.

[00:05:03]All right. Let me get my socks off and then take a quick look in there. See what they left a beer. I want a morning beer here.

[00:05:15]>> Yeah, I was saying I was going to have a call them Freddy's cuz there was a kid in high school. We'd be in the car. Of course, we in those days in the '7s, we'd be drinking and Freddy would throw his he wouldn't finish his beers and we you could hear it hit the pavement. We'd be like, "Freddy, come on."

[00:05:41]All right, let's get in the water.

[00:05:46]Come on, Cody.

[00:05:47]>> Cody, come on.

[00:05:50][Applause] Should be a I see the table.

[00:05:56]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:05:58]>> Bill's Island. There's a sign here.

[00:06:06]All right, let me You >> want to shoot?

[00:06:08]>> Uh, no. I'll just go barefoot. I'm like Tom Sawyer.

[00:06:13]Right.

[00:06:15]I don't see any poison ivy or poison oak. Oh, this is beautiful. Look at this.

[00:06:21]>> Maybe it's under that wooden thing.

[00:06:25]>> Wow, this is old.

[00:06:28]>> Now, is there a senotap here?

[00:06:31]>> I thought you mean like a >> Yeah, >> I thought there was.

[00:06:36]>> All right, barefoot Tom. I'm going to go explore here.

[00:06:42]I think this is where you hang the fish.

[00:06:44]Check this out. Yeah. Look at this. Just imagine. See the hooks.

[00:06:54]Boy, if these trees could talk some over a hundred years old.

[00:07:01]I see.

[00:07:03]Let me see if I see anything over here.

[00:07:07]Well, the man that used to come here, Bill Brandon and his friends, he was in high school, 1930.

[00:07:17]This is where they would come with the family, just like me. We'd go up to Hayward, Wisconsin, to Cable to Lake Owen in the Northwoods. That's how it gets in your blood.

[00:07:29]And just imagine he was here. This hero, this World War II hero.

[00:07:34]Well, I don't see a senotap other than that sign, but I'll give you a little background on him. Here's some more artifacts here.

[00:07:44]So, William Paul Brandon, full name, he enlisted in the US Navy Reserve in February of 1942, what I looked up. He joined the third unit of the Flying Badgers able cadetses from University of Wisconsin Madison and he completed his pre-flight training at Glen View Naval Air Base which I'm very familiar with. Well, it's gone now.

[00:08:11]It's been gone.

[00:08:13]He received his commission and his wings at Corpus Christi in Texas October 1942.

[00:08:22]you know, another one of the greatest generation volunteering.

[00:08:30]Well, he was sent to Florida where he received advanced training flying torpedo planes. Now, if you guys, many of you know, I owned the TVM Avenger, the Grumman, which initially was the TBF. Unfortunately, on the way home from California, we had an engine basically explode and had to bail out my friend and I. So, anyway, that's a whole another story, but it was like, wow.

[00:08:57]Bill flew the same airplane. Oh, look at this. This is There's like a a grill here.

[00:09:04]This is This is These are amazing artifacts.

[00:09:09]Look at this, guys.

[00:09:12]Wow.

[00:09:14]Just imagine the adventures Bill and his friends had here in 1930 the 30s I should say.

[00:09:23]Well, from there he was sent to San Diego which was typical for from Florida. He was actually sent to San Diego for more advanced training. And this was in March of 1943.

[00:09:38]Boy, the war was really at the peak.

[00:09:40]This is Guadal Canal time.

[00:09:43]He Bill visited his family on leave before heading back to San Diego before he left. That's the last time that they would get to see him alive.

[00:09:54]Period. Actually, because he was assigned to the composite squadron 28, VC28 VC we use for the squadrons. and he flew the actually he didn't fly the the TBM he flew the Douglas SBD Dauntless the dive bomber and he was in support of carrier air groupoup 28 based off the USS Janango CVE28 which was a Sangaman class escort carrier Yep 28 we're standing century over the recently taken at at the time, Guadal Canal in 43.

[00:10:42]But sadly, on June 15th, 1943, while off the coast of New Calonia, Brandon's plane disappeared.

[00:10:51]He was on an air patrol. And his body was never recovered. So, there's the Senate, of course, the Rosalon Memorial Park in Manona, Wisconsin here. But he's also immortalized on the courts of the missing in Honolulu, Hawaii. the famous the famous place the missing boy oh boy.

[00:11:13]So this is where he would be spending his the best years the best times of his life right here on this island.

[00:11:22]You know you can just imagine the fish hanging there.

[00:11:30]Wonder if they were muskies probably.

[00:11:34]Boy oh boy. Well, greatest generation, guys.

[00:11:38]My hat is is off to William Brandon.

[00:11:45]All right, guys.

[00:11:47]Greatest generation. All right. Thanks, Joe, for bringing me here.