Hq Caribbean Air Command 
Albrook Air Force Base, Canal Zone 
July 9, 1949. 
Dr. Alexander Wetmarre 
Secretary 
Smithsonian Institution 
Washington 25, D.C. 
Dear Dr. Wetmore: 
•p 
It was interesting to hare your recent letter from Washington, 
and to learn that, after further analysis, your collection proves to be 
outstanding. We are all glad to know that you considered this trip so 
successful, since there was much personal interest in any help the Air 
Force was able to offer. 
General Hale told me of your letter to him, and I in turn 
passed on your information to him concerning General Arnold. This news 
was of considerable interest, since they have been closely associated 
for many years. 
We have heard from the Stirlings once or twice since their 
return, and we plan to write them also without further delay• 
It will probably be of some interest to you to know that I 
recently had occasion to look over the Bayano region quite thoroughly 
from the air, at an altitude of approximately 500 feet above the higher 
terrain. From this point the "plateau" appeared quite wooded and rugged. 
From higher altitudes « and casual observations — my impression had 
been that the region was more level and covered with much smaller growth 
than actually exists. However, it is not impassable. The Inter-American 
Geodetic Survey party has established a ground observation station, for 
example, at the shoulder of the peak formerly assumed to be.4,939 feet 
in elevation. Since the approach from Chiman to this location is so steep, 
they enter up the river due north of La Palma, I am told. I have recently 
talked with Geodetic Survey workers who have traveled southeastward from 
La Palma, by power launch, up that river and then doubled back to the 
northwest a considerable distance up the Chucunaque river — even going 
up some of the tributaries of that river toward the Darien mountain range. 
Bty flight, to which I refer above, took me to a point across 
the Darien range a short distance from the Colombian border, where we 
landed at a small, almost abandoned airstrip called Pito. I was there 
with a small group of officers sent to investigate the circumstances of the 
crash of one of our small liaison planes which had struck a treetop the 
day before. It was attempting to drop supplies to a ground survey party 
which is established at the assumed 4,396 foot peak, about 15 miles south 
of Pito. Fortunately, no one was injured, and the two fellows walked out 
in approximately six hours. The plane was demolished, and the wreckage was 
inspected and photographed by helicopter• 
