Looking for lost WWII Treasure

Skippy, great "cut & pastes". Now ask yourself: Whenever someone is reporting a treasure that has supposedly been found (or still-waiting to be found), does the person doing the write-up (that you eventually cut & paste) ever consider it (or report it in such a way) as to be ILLegitimate ? Of course not. Everyone writing about treasure posts/writes it in the 100% affirmative first-person singular postive true accounting.

Thus when you write "legitimate reports", I had to chuckle thinking: Who would ever say write a treasure story and forewarn you "it's not legitimate" ? :roll: Who DOESN'T think their treasure stories are "legitimate" ?

I could dissect and propose counter explanations to all the stories. But then would perhaps get criticized for pee-ing on a parade. Suffice it to say: All those rumors/legends have more-plausible explanations.
Hi Tom, I am the 10-year younger brother of Alan Foringer, JD Foringer. I was stationed overseas, in Japan, on a Navy aircraft carrier which pulled into Subic Bay often. My arrival to the Far East, in November 1984, and specifically the Philippines (PI), predates Alan's first arrival in October 1985. My ship would pull into the PI often, as Subic Bay Naval Base was a major support base for aircraft carriers going on Indian Ocean Deployments, at the time. Alan would come to Subic to see me and I had gone to Manila a few times to see him. In October 1986, I took two weeks leave from my ship in Japan, got on a military hop aircraft to Clark Air Force Base, in Angeles City, and a but to Manila. It was an experience and scene straight out of the old Michael Douglas movie, "Romancing the Stone," with chickens, goats, and mountainous windy roads, and the movie was fresh in my mind then.

Alan took me most everywhere with him, but there were times when he left me in another room, while his "business meetings" occurred, such as an evening dinner at Ambassador Mutoc's house. I also got to see three of the four heavily focused sites of Nippon Star's, predating Singalub and Curtis's involvement, contrary to their claims. Singlaub was a hero, and a phenomenal person who has done many things for our country. He also was a braggard and I believe his mouth put my brother at risk. My brother died in the PI, years after his work with Singlaub, but I don't doubt they were still connected but on parallel paths.

I do believe the CIA benefitted far beyond what accounts are available in open source. I know Singlaub's Geo-Military Tech (GMT) company were very good at getting things done in secret. My hunch was Alan's purpose was to get close to the treasure find locations, to be chased off by any mixture of U.S./Filipino armed services, police, and the like, to facilitate a different entity to come in and secretly consummate the find and whisk away the treasure to Clark Air Force Base and get it into the coffers of the U.S. Intelligence Apparatus.

On July 14th, 2001, my life changed forever. It was the day I was watching a History special, called "The Complete History of the Green Berets," as I was always enthralled with them since the John Wayne movie, and grew up wanting to be one. About a third through the program, prior to the screen flipping to the next scene, a familiar voice was heard, and then Jack Singlaub's face appeared. I met Singlaub, the first time, when I visited my brother in Manila, as he just arrived in the PI, when he was brought into the efforts for security of the treasure sites and shipment of finds to Clark AFB. I remember him talking to me like a normal-Joe, not a 2-star general to a Navy Second Class Petty Officer, which would be the same grade as an Army Sargent for him. I knew he was in the Army but didn’t recall he was a Green Beret. That caused me to Google his name and Green Beret, as well as CIA since he was OSS. Then I Googled Singlaub and Foringer and it took me to the early work of Bob Curtis with his eBook.

That search was my first exposure my brother was in the CIA. And, of course, I disbelieved it because how could I not have known it. Alan and I were the closest in my family, but I was to learn in my research he was skilled at maintaining multiple personas. In the process of proving it wrong, after a few years, I became convinced as well. I set out trying to disprove the headings of Curtis’ article claiming Alan was in the CIA. After proving each accurate my eyes began to look at it all with an impersonal tack.

You can read volumes of articles and books which characterize the interactions and work habits between career CIA officers and military SPECOPS assigned to the Agency. Rock Myers (now deceased) worked with Alan in the PI, but under Singlaub’s company, GMT. I interviewed Rock a few times before his death, last August, and he characterized his active-duty and post Army work with the Agency as the “Shadow Army of the Potomac.” Rock had a good relationship with their helicopter pilot, Mike Timpani, a retired Army Warrant Officer, who did a lot of spook work in Central America, in and out of the Army. Rock knew Mike was roped in for whisking any gold discoveries to Clark Air Force Base, in Angeles City, PI, for transfer to the States.

I have discovered many other things which pointed to Alan being a CIA agent. So, this left me with searching other unknowns…how did Alan really die, and if different from the official account, who was responsible for his death. This has motivated me to investigate my brother’s life and death and I am working on a book about his life, pursuits and death
Hint: Take such info with a grain of salt. You will ALWAYS hear of some supposed past treasures that someone found. And it will always sound seeooo compelling. The person telling you will have much enthusiasm, and tell it in the first person singular (he knows the person first-hand, etc....).

But I'll bet you dollars to donuts that when you go to track down his source .... then guess what ?? That person ALSO hasn't actually seen the treasure. But rest assured he got it on good authority from his Uncle Ralph. So you track down Ralph. And guess what ? HE TOO didn't *personally* see the treasure either. But rest assured he got it on good authority, because he heard it from his drinking buddy Joe at the campfire last February. So you track down Joe and guess what ?? Do you see the never-ending regression ?

And at NO POINT is it ever not told in the first person account positive bullet proof true. Thus I hate to say it, but I would lump all such treasure stories you hear in the same vein.
 
Hey there JD Foringer, I have read your post. Thanx. But I'm having trouble trying to figure out what this has to do with the pro/con discussion of the supposed Yamashita treasure ? :?:
Well, sometimes a weakness of mine is to write at length and maybe lose the original intent, probably ADHD :roll:. Mostly was giving you some background about my brother, from a person who personally saw the Yamashita Treasure Hunting efforts, and determined 25 years after the experience that Alan worked for the CIA. After my initial discovery, disbelief and efforts to prove it wrong, in 2001, about 10 years later I convinced myself. Through that lens, looking at the dearth of information and documents I had collected since 2001, I am persuaded in the belief the CIA has successfully hid their efforts to recover Yamashita's Treasure, and likely many others. Since my brother was searching for other sunken treasures up to seven years before his initial departure to the Philippines, in October 1985, it was clearly his covert operative charge to fill the coffers of the CIA with funds which would allow them to operate black projects off books.
 
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Well, sometimes a weakness of mine is to write at length and maybe lose the original intent, probably ADHD :roll:. Mostly was giving you some background about my brother, from a person who personally saw the Yamashita Treasure Hunting efforts, and determined 25 years after the experience that Alan worked for the CIA. After my initial discovery, disbelief and efforts to prove it wrong, in 2001, about 10 years later I convinced myself. Through that lens, looking at the dearth of information and documents I had collected since 2001, I am persuaded in the belief the CIA has successfully hid their efforts to recover Yamashita's Treasure, and likely many others. Since my brother was searching for other sunken treasures up to seven years before his initial departure to the Philippines, in October 1985, it was clearly his covert operative charge to fill the coffers of the CIA with funds which would allow them to operate black projects off books.
Ok, thanx for the explanation. Here's my input on this : The fact of any governments, or agencies like the CIA "looking for treasure" does NOT, in my opinion, lend credibility to the existence or reality of a treasure. Ie.: It doesn't make the story true and credible.

Because people in the military, government and "3 letter agencies" are just human like you and I. Prone to be swoon by treasure fever. And thus : Prone to mistakes in judgement. Prone to "waste money". For example, I own a company that does occasional bidding and working with government agencies and I see it first hand all the time : Waste of money. I mean, shucks, you've seen the humorous stories of $300 toilet seats and $800 coffee pots, right ? So trust me : The govt. is capable of doing stupid stuff.

And as for their ability to engage in silly ghost story hunts (fall for "legends") here's a thread that will show you that, yes, they can fall for legends, engage in hunts, and spend a lot of $$ on something that was entirely fiction. Yet .... without scrutiny, .... we become spellbound with "treasure fever" . Yes, even G-men :

 
Ok, thanx for the explanation. Here's my input on this : The fact of any governments, or agencies like the CIA "looking for treasure" does NOT, in my opinion, lend credibility to the existence or reality of a treasure. Ie.: It doesn't make the story true and credible.

Because people in the military, government and "3 letter agencies" are just human like you and I. Prone to be swoon by treasure fever. And thus : Prone to mistakes in judgement. Prone to "waste money". For example, I own a company that does occasional bidding and working with government agencies and I see it first hand all the time : Waste of money. I mean, shucks, you've seen the humorous stories of $300 toilet seats and $800 coffee pots, right ? So trust me : The govt. is capable of doing stupid stuff.

And as for their ability to engage in silly ghost story hunts (fall for "legends") here's a thread that will show you that, yes, they can fall for legends, engage in hunts, and spend a lot of $$ on something that was entirely fiction. Yet .... without scrutiny, .... we become spellbound with "treasure fever" . Yes, even G-men :

Yes sir, I understand your perspective. I remember reading that story, up in PA, as it struck me because I'm roughly from that area and my brother's tasking in South Florida and in the PI. The converse of your argument is the fact of the public not being aware of any successful treasure seeking efforts does NOT mean there haven't been successful finds which stayed out of the public purview, or benefitted from accounts of bumbling endeavors. When I was at a meeting at the then National Maritime Intelligence Center, in 2011 (now back to the old name Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI)), about the very subject of Yamashita's Gold, and specifically the then current efforts in the PI, with Muslim terrorist groups pursuing Yamashita's Treasure in rural and remote locations in Mindanao, it was very revealing the progress they were making and our Government's interest in disrupting their success. That's not classified, for one reason because if it were I would not reveal it, and it was revealed in a UPI story, and pretty close to the truth as we knew it.
 
.....The converse of your argument is the fact of the public not being aware of any successful treasure seeking efforts does NOT mean there haven't been successful finds which stayed out of the public purview,.....

Then if we "take this ^ ^ for a test drive", then you, as a member of the public, are "not aware of any successful treasure seeking efforts". So : This gets us nowhere .

Then everything after that , in your post, is no different than the rationale/logic of the Dents Run "proofs". Eg.: G-men with squinty eyes. Someone who acted suspicious, etc.... In other words: It's all a giant conspiracy. But : Rest assured, fabulous treasure ? And : The less we know, the MORE TRUE IT IS ! Because, shucks, did you expect them to let the truth leak out ?

And if you think that all those people seeking Yamashita treasure (Muslims, etc...) lend credibility to the story ? If so, this is the old adage of : "Where there's smoke, there must be fire". No, I disagree. The smoke is "of their own making". Just like in D.R. , when Dennis got a 3-letter agency to go out and look, he paraded that as "smoke that evidences fire". When all it was, was SMOKE OF HIS OWN MAKING. Eg.: Banging on govt. and media outlet doors for a decade, till finally he gets someone to go out and look.

An example of this is : I bet that if I told my local LEOs that I knew where 5 murder victims were buried in the desert, that I could get them to come out and dig around. So does the fact of their "digging around" mean my story was true ? No. Of course not.
 
Yes sir, I understand your perspective. I remember reading that story, up in PA, as it struck me because I'm roughly from that area and my brother's tasking in South Florida and in the PI. The converse of your argument is the fact of the public not being aware of any successful treasure seeking efforts does NOT mean there haven't been successful finds which stayed out of the public purview, or benefitted from accounts of bumbling endeavors. When I was at a meeting at the then National Maritime Intelligence Center, in 2011 (now back to the old name Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI)), about the very subject of Yamashita's Gold, and specifically the then current efforts in the PI, with Muslim terrorist groups pursuing Yamashita's Treasure in rural and remote locations in Mindanao, it was very revealing the progress they were making and our Government's interest in disrupting their success. That's not classified, for one reason because if it were I would not reveal it, and it was revealed in a UPI story, and pretty close to the truth as we knew it.
It seems that Tom has made it his mission in life to poo- poo all treasure legends as tall tales , but a lot of people do believe that there is treasure still out there waiting to be found or found but kept quiet. A book you might find of interest is https://www.academia.edu/59080189/G...y_of_Yamashitas_Gold_Bowstring_2010_Seagraves also the CIA has been active in the Philippines for a long time (The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been active in the Philippines almost since the agency’s creation in the 1940s. The CIA’s main headquarters for Southeast Asia is located in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. The CIA was founded in 1947 and first played a major role in the Philippines three years later. Towards the end of the 1980s, the CIA unleashed an increasingly large amount of covert operations against leftist organizations in the Philippines)
 
It seems that Tom has made it his mission in life to poo- poo all treasure legends as tall tales , but a lot of people do believe that there is treasure still out there waiting to be found or found but kept quiet. A book you might find of interest is https://www.academia.edu/59080189/G...y_of_Yamashitas_Gold_Bowstring_2010_Seagraves also the CIA has been active in the Philippines for a long time (The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been active in the Philippines almost since the agency’s creation in the 1940s. The CIA’s main headquarters for Southeast Asia is located in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. The CIA was founded in 1947 and first played a major role in the Philippines three years later. Towards the end of the 1980s, the CIA unleashed an increasingly large amount of covert operations against leftist organizations in the Philippines)
By the way, I was in touch with Sterling and Peggy Seagraves, in the 2,000s. prior to the release of their book. Sterling and I had quite a few email exchanges during that time, and he cited me in the text related to my brother, his sickness, and death. Since their death, I have been in touch with their daughter, and she was helpful, but also not lashed in with her parents endeavors so limited in information.
 
Tom wouldn't believe a treasure could be true even if he was setting on a pile of the gold or silver bars from that Pirate , civil war , or Japanese treasure.
 
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