Military use of Dowsing

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Ian Pegler
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Re: Military use of Dowsing

Post by Ian Pegler »

Pretty fantastic!!

Sharing this!

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Grahame
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Re: Military use of Dowsing

Post by Grahame »

I just came across a remarkable dowsing story about dowsing in Vietnam, in the vol 14, no 3, August 1974 issue of The American Dowser, the journal of the ASD. These are available to members only, so I can't post a direct link, but it's worth posting this story.

It's an article by Christopher Bird concerning Vietnamese naval officer, Commander Vo-Sum who, amongst his other achievements, scored a remarkable success in locating a missing Vietnamese patrol boat escort in January 1974, enabling the rescue of several crew. Here's the relevant section:
The Commander's most recent, and to him most sensational, dowsing achievement was the rescue of members of a Vietnamese naval crew reported missing in the 56-minute long engagement with Chinese naval forces at the Paracel Islands on 19 January, 1974. In charge of communication for those operations at the time, Vo-Sum lost electronic contact with a patrol craft escort (PCE). Using only the name of the ship, "Nhat-Tao HQ-I0," written on a piece of paper as an identifying key, he brought his pendulum into action on a naval chart and located a preliminary position for the escort vessel at 16 degrees 18 minutes N and 111 degrees 16 minutes E at 10:00 am. on January 20th (see point A on chart). The ship was moving
south-south-west. Having no other information, the operations chief of staff decided to base rescue operations on Vo-Sum's datum. Twenty-four hours later Vo-Sum's dowsing gave him a second position (B on the chart) with the stricken PCE still drifting in the same direction, 240 degrees. Air search was slowed down by an order to keep away from the 16th parallel in order to avoid possible entanglements with enemy MIG aircraft. But the planes finally found the sought-for target exactly where Vo-Sum had pinpointed it: 16 degrees 24 minutes N and 111 degrees 9 minutes E.

Image

On the third day at 10:00 the Commander's pendulum gave a third reading (point C an the chart) and at 18:30 o'clock that evening 23 persons in the Nhat-Tao HQ-10's complement, now an rafts, were rescued by the Netherlands merchant vessel, Kopionella, out of Hong Kong (at point M on the chart). Vo-Sum was warmly congratulated by the Commodore commanding the operation far his having accurately pinpointed the position of the crippled escort.

The rescued crew reported that two of their number had been seen floating away an a wooden raft which Vo-Sum proceeded to dowse, finding its position to be 16 degrees 1 minute N and 110 degrees 28 minutes E (see point D an the chart) heading south-south-west. This was at 13:25 o'clock an 24 January. Vo-Sum gave three more positions (E, F, G on the chart) during the same afternoon. At 18:15 the same evening the target was sighted by an observation plane at 15 degrees 43 minutes N and 110 degrees 2 minutes E, (point N an the chart) but the two badly wounded survivors were no longer on the raft.

One problem now remains: to locate the sunken PCE which went down with her heroic captain, 32-year oId Nguy-Van-Tha, who
though badly wounded at the start of the battle remained with his ship to' the last, and fifty other men, most of them wounded or dead. Commander Vo-Sum invites dowsers from all aver the world to help in locating the sunken vessel and states that dowsing results, if confirmed in the future, will be released.
A pretty remarkable bit of map dowsing, I'm sure you'll agree. I don't know if there was any follow-up to the story, but if I find one I'lĺ post it here.
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The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it - Terry Pratchett.
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Re: Military use of Dowsing

Post by Grahame »

An article by Louis Matacia from 2008 mentions a Captain Ralph Harris of South Boston, VA, who was a dowser for the US Army in North Africa during WWII:
In World War II, General Patton used the dowsing skills of Captain Ralph Harris of South
Boston, VA. During the North African desert campaign, Captain Harris located 14 major water
wells, a much-needed survival requirement for the army. Many underground rivers were located
with the first well at 700 feet, producing 2,000 gallons per minute.
Matacia also mentions prisoners in Nazi concentration camps using pendulums to determine what the guards were up to:
Certain prisoners in Nazi concentration camps used pendulums to determine what actions
their guards would take in advance. This so perplexed the camp officers that all pendulums
were confiscated. The prisoners simply made more pendulums.
Both the above taken from the Feb. 2023 newsletter of the Dowsing Society of Victoria.

I can't find much more about Harris online, apart from this 2001 article on dowsing where Harris is a guest teacher:
One of the guest teachers of the class was Ralph W. Harris, a Los Angeles real estate man who’d been dowsing for more than 55 years. He preferred a long, metal spring with a magnet at its end as his divining rod. By moving it, or a pendulum, over a map, Harris claimed that he’d found gold, oil, water, lost objects and lost people without even going to the exact location. Harris’ dowsing began at age 9, and he explained that a good dowser should strive for 100 percent accuracy.
Harris enjoyed sharing one of his greatest dowsing achievements: As a private in the U.S. Army, the geologists for General George Patton said they couldn’t locate water in the North African desert. Harris managed to get a message to Patton that he could dowse for water. As a result, Patton had an entire willow tree flown to the site the next day!
Harris cut a small, Y-shaped piece of willow and walked into the desert—followed by Patton’s skeptical geologist colonel. Where Harris said to drill, a vein of water was located. It was 300 feet wide and yielded 2,000 gallons a minute from 400 feet below the surface. This provided the troops with their needed water, and Patton called upon Harris whenever more water was needed when the advancing troops ran short.
Harris stated that he charged $500 for his (civilian)services for locating a water well and a percentage of the gross if he was looking for oil. He was a colorful figure who added a unique character and background to the class.
Grahame
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it - Terry Pratchett.
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Re: Military use of Dowsing

Post by mike »

Just seen this, and looking for a navel vessel PCE boat you imagine they all dowse the same, but it’s not always the case, I get a PCE sunk at position of 16.0644n and 112.4656e close to Paracel Island to it’s se if this helps at all.
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