if it crashed into a remote area as the article indicates...during low tide, the pilot could have walked out to dry land.
go back with a Jeep a few hours later and high tide has rolled in and the plane is gone.
cant find it oh well.
fight a very demanding war for the next couple of years and things like this tend to fall by the wayside.
during that two year period the aircraft sinks into a sand bed and vanishes from sight.
as the article points out, "shifting water currents displaced the sand" or something to that effect - revealing the aircraft during periods of low tide.
thus it was only a matter of time before either someone found it, or it was swallowed back up by the sand.
the vertical fin of the tail sticks up about the same height as the P-38's top dead center propeller.
as you can see from the photograph only about 10-14 inches is above the water line.
this would lead me to believe that the aircraft is partially buried in the sand with a slight nose up attitude of only 2 or 3 degrees, thus totally submerging the tail section out of view
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