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Image:    (from left) Sgt. Kenneth Decker, Cpl. Margaret Hastings and Lt. John McCollom were the only three survivors of the Gremlin Special crash. They’re pictured above at the U.S. Army station in Hollandia, New Guinea, shortly after their rescue. B.B. McCollom.        The Gremlin Special was a Douglas C-47 Skytrain that crashed during a sightseeing flight for U.S. service members over the Baliem Valley (Shangri-La Valley) in New Guinea in 1945. Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II, by Mitchell Zuckoff (https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_audible_1?ie=UTF8&search-alias=audible&field-keywords=Mitchell+Zuckoff) .   HarperAudio (https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_audible_2?ie=UTF8&search-alias=audible&field-keywords=HarperAudio) (Publisher).   Audible Audiobook – Unabridged.        https://www.amazon.com/Lost-in-Shangri-La-audiobook/dp/B004XXVSYW/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Mitchell+Zuckoff+shanghai-la&qid=1595811909&s=audible&sr=1-1       On May 13, 1945, twent-f0ur American servicemen and WACs boarded a transport plane for a sightseeing trip over “Shangri-La,” a beautiful and mysterious valley deep within the jungle-covered mountains of Dutch New Guinea. Unlike the peaceful Tibetan monks of James Hilton’s best-selling novel, Lost Horizon, this Shangri-La was home to spear-carrying tribesmen, warriors rumored to be cannibals.  But the pleasure tour became an unforgettable battle for survival when the plane crashed. Miraculously, three passengers pulled through. Margaret Hastings, barefoot and burned, had no choice but to wear her dead best friend’s shoes. John McCollom, grieving the death of his twin brother also aboard the plane, masked his grief with stoicism. Kenneth Decker, too, was severely burned and suffered a gaping head wound.  Emotionally devastated, badly injured, and vulnerable to the hidden dangers of the jungle, the trio faced certain death unless they left the crash site. Caught between man-eating headhunters and enemy Japanese, the wounded passengers endured a harrowing hike down the mountainside—a journey into the unknown that would lead them straight into a primitive tribe of superstitious natives who had never before seen a white man—or woman.