This is the third and final part in a series.

On March 15, 1945, as World War II was in its final phase, a flight of F6F Hellcat fighters took off from NSA Atlantic City on a routine training flight.

As they returned, the weather changed and a heavy fog enveloped the Jersey Shore. In an instant four planes and their pilots crashed into the Tuckerton marsh, off what is today called Seven Bridges Road near the Rutgers University Marine Field Station.

The original story made headlines across the nation, but stories of the rescue effort and search for the wrecked…