3 separate but eerily linked events left 16 people dead along the California coast. On July 4, 1943, a B-24 Liberator on maneuvers ran low on fuel over the Pacific. The U.S. Army Air Corps crew parachuted out, two into the ocean, and the unmanned heavy bomber crashed near Santa Barbara. A 2nd B-24 Liberator assigned tothe search and rescue mission, literally vanished. In 1954, the Coast Guard cutter carrying air force investigators to wrap up details of the 2nd aircraft (the plane's remains and those of its 12 crewmen were found 8 months after their disappearance on San Miguel Island) rammed a yacht, killing two others. Author Robert A. Burtness re-creates this tragic trilogy of errors in this painstakingly researched volume.