Christine and Randy Spitz moved to Cape Coral from Illinois in 2014 with no idea that the remains of a tragic historical event that involved the family lay 30 miles off the Southwest Florida coast.
That event, the 1942 crash of a World War II bomber and death of six crewmen off Sanibel Island, was a mystery for more than 65 years.
On Saturday, family members of those dead crewmen took a journey to the Gulf of Mexico crash site about 30 miles off Sanibel and memorialized the loss with prayers, poetry, and tears. The wreckage was discovered in 2008.
And an exhibit detailing the crash of the plane, a B-26 Marauder, opened Sunday after a makeover at the IMAG History and Science Center in Fort Myers.
The museum honored the surviving family members with presentations on the lives of the crewmen and the excavation of the site. Direct family members received replicas of the metal call tag, the tiny plaque that identified the plane.
Christine Spitz' mother was just 2 years old when her uncle, Donald Vail, the pilot of the plane, vanished along with the B-26 Marauder, a super-fast twin-engine aircraft, and five crew members.
Spitz, who moved to Cape Coral in 2014 with her husband Randy, had no idea of the family connection until she saw the story recounted in a 2016 News-Press article and saw her granduncle's name.
"I got chills," she said.
The Spitz' were among those visiting the Gulf crash site Saturday, coincidentally which would have been Vail's 98th birthday.
"My mom started crying when we told her about his birthday being Saturday and that we were going to visit the site," Christine Spitz said. "He kind of doted on my mom. She was the only niece born at the time."
Vail's remains and that of co-pilot Lt. Fred Dees were recovered. The remains of Staff Sgt. William Kittiko, Lt. Louis Mikes, and Staff Sgts. Richard Treat and Milton Newton have never been located.
After the two-hour-plus trip to the site, which lies some 70-feet below the surface, wreaths and flowers were tossed in the choppy, blue Gulf waters as a brilliant pink sunset provided a backdrop.
Moments of reflection, hugs and camaraderie concluded the trip as the fishing party boat hired from Capt. Tony's Charters on Fort Myers Beach made the long trip back to its berth.
Along for the ride was Erik Carlson, FGCU history professor, and Tom O'Brien, a staff member of Underwater Historical Explorations and a key figure and in identifying the plane and organizing its memorial, offering information about the plane, crewmen and related details.
Also on the dive portion of Saturday's trip was Matt Johnson, the IMAG executive director,
"We've been honored to be a part of this," Johnson said. "It was a great dive."
The new B-26 exhibit, which came to the IMAG when the museum merged with the Southwest Florida Museum of History about a year-and-a-half ago, has enhanced stories, artifacts such as machine guns and a propeller and full bios of each of the six crew members.
Sunday's IMAG event gave the family members a chance to see those artifacts and information about the B-26 Marauder, the crash and their relatives.
"It's made me more interested in my family's history, Spitz said Sunday. "And wanting to know more."
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