captioning funded by cbs and ford >> see that structure underneath it? they actually built that to catch any of the falling concrete so it wouldn't hit this is one of 70,000 bridges in the united states that are rated structurally detpeurbgt states that are rated structurally deficient and in need of major repairs or replacement. it's part of a public rate -- 's damaging the american economy, hurting our ability to compete globally, and threatening the public safety. everyone it in government knows it but they can not find out where the money is coming from to fix it. it is gripping washington washington. >> simon: it's called "the zone," and getting into it is

crossing a border into one of the most contaminated places on earth. the nuclear melt down at cher kraine was 30 years ago, but the crisis is still with us today. that's because radiation virtually never dies-- the crippled reactor still has the power to kill. and they're building a giant arch to cover it. there's... there's beepers going off. >> no, no. it's not... it's normal. >> simon: you're sure? >> yes, yes, yes. >> simon: i don't like a beeper in chernobyl. ( laughter ) i don't like that sound. >> cooper: these heavenly looking south pacific islands were once known as a "forgotten corner of hell." that's because more than 200 american fighter planes were lost here during world war ii. but it's forgotten no more as technology helps discover the wrecked aircraft and respectfully recover the remains of american airmen, both on land and under water. >> at the end of the game, it's not about finding wreck sites.

it's about finding the m.i.a.s who... who are no longer m.i.a. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bob simon. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." daughter: do you and mom still have money with that broker? dad: yeah, 20 something years now. thinking about what you want to do with your money? daughter: looking at options. what do you guys pay in fees? dad: i don't know exactly. daughter: if you're not happy do they have to pay you back? dad: it doesn't really work that way. daughter: you sure? vo: are you asking enough questions about the way your wealth is managed? wealth management at charles schwab. this is paul. this is paul's office. for those who believe a serious job doesn't have to feel so serious. one a day men's vitacraves with key nutrients like b-vitamins

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of date, and the vast majority of our seaports are in danger of becoming obsolete, all the result of decades of neglect. none of this is really in dispute. business leaders, labor unions, governors, mayors, congressmen, and presidents have complained about a lack of funding for years, but aside from a one-time cash infusion from the stimulus program, nothing much has changed. there is still no consensus on how to solve the problem or where to get the massive amounts of money needed to fix it; just another example of political paralysis in washington. tens of millions of americans cross over bridges every day without giving it much thought, unless they hit a pothole. but the infrastructure problem goes much deeper than pavement. it goes to crumbling concrete and corroded steel, and the fact that nearly 70,000 bridges in america-- one out of every nine- - is now considered to be structurally deficient. >> ray lahood: our infrastructure's on life support right now.

that's what we're on. >> kroft: few people are more aware of the situation than ray lahood, who was secretary of transportation during the first obama administration, and before that, a seven-term republican congressman from illinois. he is currently co-chairman of building america's future, a bipartisan coalition of current and former elected officials that is urgently pushing for more spending on infrastructure. according to the government, there are 70,000 bridges that have been deemed structurally deficient. >> lahood: yep. >> kroft: what does that mean? >> lahood: it means that there are bridges that need to be really either replaced or repaired in a very dramatic way. >> kroft: they're dangerous? >> lahood: i don't want to say they're unsafe, but they're dangerous. i would agree with that. >> kroft: if you were going to take me someplace, any place in the country, to illustrate the problem, where would you take me? >> lahood: there is a lot of places we could go. i mean, you could go to any

major city in america, and see roads and bridges and infrastructure that need to be fixed today. they need to be fixed today. >> kroft: we decided to start in pittsburgh, which may have the most serious problem in the country. our guide was andy herrmann, a past president of the american society of civil engineers. from up here, you can see why they call it "the city of bridges." >> andy herrmann:: yeah. between the highway and the railroad bridges, there's many of them. >> kroft: and most of them old. >> herrmann:: most of them old. they're nearing the end of their useful lives, yeah. >> kroft: there are more than more than 4,000 bridges in metropolitan pittsburgh, and 20% of them are structurally deficient, including one of the city's main arteries. this is the liberty bridge ahead? >> herrmann:: yeah. >> kroft: an important bridge for pittsburgh? >> herrmann:: a very important bridge for pittsburgh-- a connection from the south to the city itself, and then to the north. >> kroft: it was built in 1928 when cars and trucks were much

lighter. it was designed to last 50 years. that was 86 years ago. every day, in pittsburgh, five million people travel across bridges that either need to be replaced or undergo major repairs. >> herrmann:: one of these arch bridges actually has a structure built under it to catch falling deck. see that structure underneath it? they actually built that to catch any of the falling concrete so it wouldn't hit traffic underneath it. >> kroft: that's amazing. >> herrmann:: it all comes down to funding. right now, they can't keep up with it. 300 bridges become structurally deficient each year in the state of pennsylvania. that's 1% added to the already 23% they already have. they just can't fix them fast enough. >> kroft: pennsylvania is one of the worst states in the country when it comes to the condition of its infrastructure, and philadelphia isn't any better off than pittsburgh. nine million people a day travel over 900 bridges classified as structurally deficient, some of them on a heavily traveled section of i-95. ed rendell is a former democratic governor of pennsylvania. how critical is this stretch of i-95 to the country?

>> ed rendell: it's the nation's number one highway. 22 miles of it goes through the city of philadelphia. there are 15 structurally deficient bridges in that 22- mile stretch. and to fix them would cost $7 billion, to fix all the roads and the structurally deficient bridges in that 22-mile stretch. >> kroft: rendell says no one knows where the money is going to come from, and this stretch of i-95 has already had one brush with disaster. in 2008, two contractors from the pennsylvania department of transportation stopped to get a sausage sandwich, and parked their cars under this bridge. >> rendell: and fortunately, they wanted that sausage sandwich because they saw one of these piers with an eight-foot gash in it about five inches wide. and oh, they knew automatically that this bridge was in deep trouble. >> kroft: the section of 1-95 was immediately shut down and blocked off while construction crews buttressed the column with steel girders. it was closed for three days, creating havoc in philadelphia. but the city was lucky.

>> rendell: i mean, it was unbelievable. it's so fortuitous. >> kroft: and if they hadn't wanted a sausage sandwich? >> rendell: there's a strong likelihood that bridge would have collapsed. these all are tragedies waiting to happen. >> kroft: the i-95 bridges were built in the early 1960s and are now more than 50 years old, the same vintage as the i-35 bridge that collapsed in minnesota back in 2007, killing 13 people and injuring 145. the antiquated skagit river bridge in washington state that collapsed last may after a truck hit one of the trusses was even older. and it's not just bridges. according to the american society of civil engineers, 32% of the major roads in america are now in poor condition and in need of major repairs. yet the major source of revenue- - the federal highway trust fund, which gets its money from the federal gas tax of 18 cents a gallon-- is almost insolvent. former transportation secretary

ray lahood says it will go broke by next spring unless something is done. >> lahood: that was the pot of money that, over 50 years, helped us create the best interstate system in the world, which is now falling apart. >> kroft: why? how did it get this way? >> lahood: it's falling apart because we haven't made the investments. we haven't got the money. the last time we raised the gas tax, which is how we built the interstate system, was 1993. >> kroft: what has the resistance been? >> lahood: politicians in washington don't have the political courage to say, "this is what we have to do." that's what it takes. >> kroft: they don't want to spend the money. they don't want to raise the taxes. >> lahood: that's right. they don't want to spend the money. they don't want raise the taxes. they... they don't really have a vision of america the way that other congresses have had a vision of america. >> kroft: lahood says public spending on infrastructure has fallen to its lowest level since

1947. and the u.s., which used to have the finest infrastructure in the world, is now ranked 16th, according to the world economic forum, behind iceland, spain, portugal, and the united arab emirates. it's a fact that's not been lost on the most powerful economic and political lobbies in the country, who believe the inaction threatens the country's economic future. big corporations like caterpillar and g.e. say it's hurting their ability to compete abroad. and at a senate hearing earlier this year, tom donahue, president of the generally conservative u.s. chamber of commerce, voiced strong business support for raising the gas tax for the first time in 20 years. >> tom donahue: first, let's start by having some courage and showing some leadership. for once, let's do what's right, not what's politically expedient. second, let's educate the public and your fellow lawmakers. >> kroft: he was joined by richard trumka, president of the afl-cio, who said that every billion dollars spent on

transportation infrastructure would create 35,000 well-paying jobs. >> richard trumka: if business and labor can come before you united on this issue-- and we are united on this issue, despite our sharp disagreements on a variety of other matters-- i think that should tell everybody something and tell it very loudly. >> kroft: but it was not heard during the midterm elections, where there was virtually no public debate on infrastructure, and that has barely changed in the weeks that have followed. we wanted to talk to pennsylvania congressman bill shuster, the chairman of the house transportation committee, and made numerous requests over the last five months for an on- camera interview. all of them were declined. we did the same with michigan congressman dave camp, chairman of the house ways and means committee, which has to come up with the money to fund transportation projects. we met with the same result. but we did talk with one of the committee members, earl

blumenauer, a nine-term oregon democrat. he says the last time congress passed a major six-year transportation bill was in 1997. since then, there have been 21 short-term extensions. >> earl blumenauer: i've actually been trying now for 44 months to at least get a hearing on transportation finance on the highway trust fund that is slowly going bankrupt, and we've not had a single one. >> kroft: why can't you get a hearing? >> blumenauer: it has, to this point, not raised to the level of priority for the republican leadership. although, in fairness, when the democrats were in charge, we had a few hearings, but not much action. >> kroft: so you see this as a bipartisan failure. >> blumenauer: absolutely. the bush administration, they had two blue-ribbon commissions about infrastructure finance that recommended a lot more money, and additionally the gas tax being increased. we couldn't get them to

accept... being able to move forward. since president obama's been in office, there has been, to be charitable, a lack of enthusiasm for raising the gas tax. >> kroft: and the problems with transportation infrastructure go well beyond roads and bridges and the gas tax. there's aviation. a shortage of airports runways and gates, along with outmoded air traffic control systems, have made u.s. air travel the most congested in the world. and then there are seaports-- when a new generation of big cargo ships begin going through an expanded panama canal in another year or so, only two of the 14 major ports on the east coast will be dredged deep enough to accommodate them. there are more than 14,000 miles of high-speed rail operating around the world, but none in the united states. in chicago, it can take a freight train nearly as long to

go across the city as it would for the same train to go from chicago to los angeles. but perhaps the most glaring example of neglect and inaction may be this sad little railroad bridge over the hackensack river in new jersey. it was built 104 years ago and is, according to amtrak president and c.e.o. joe boardman, critical to the u.s. economy. >> joe boardman: this is the achilles heel that we have on the northeast corridor. >> kroft: how much traffic goes over it every day? >> boardman: it's almost 500 trains a day. it's the busiest bridge in the western hemisphere for train traffic, period. >> kroft: and what kind of shape is it in? >> boardman: it's safe, steve, but it's not reliable. and it's getting less reliable. it's old. its systems are breaking down. there's an inability to make it work on... on a regular, reliable basis. >> kroft: boardman says the portal bridge is based on a design from the 1840s, and was already obsolete shortly after it was completed in 1910.

it's a swing bridge that needs to be opened several times a week so barges can pass up and down the river. it takes about a half an hour. the problem is it fails to lock back into place on a regular basis. and what kind of problems does that cause? >> boardman: it causes trains to stack up on both sides. and actually, when a train stacks up here, it can stack up all the way down to washington and all the way back up to boston. this is a single point of failure. that's one of the biggest worries we have on this corridor is these single points of failure. >> kroft: amtrak's president says the bridge has to be replaced. the design work has already been completed, and the project, which would cost just under a billion dollars, is shovel ready. >> boardman: if congress wants to do something now, build this bridge. it's ready to be done. it's been ready for two years. build it. it's tangible evidence that they can really get something done. >> kroft: it's less a case of

wanting to get something done than coming up with the hundreds of billions of dollars needed to do it. there is no shortage of ideas from democrats or republicans, who've suggested everything from raising the gas tax to funding infrastructure through corporate tax reform. but there is no consensus and not much political support for any of the alternatives, as andy herrmann told us last summer when we were flying over pittsburgh. >> herrmann:: you're sitting there at these committee meetings. they seem to agree with you. "yes, we have to make investments in infrastructure. yes, we have to do these things." but then they come around and say, "well, where are we going to get the money?" and you sort of sit to yourself and say to yourself, "well, we elected you to figure that out." >> cbs money watch update sponsored by: >> glor: good evening. washington, dc, area airports will be the first to get new

fuel-saving satellite-based e eugation systems. thpean parliament may call for the breakup of google this week. and eli musk says tesla and bmw are in talks about partnering on batteries and other components. i'm jeff glor, cbs news.

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>> simon: some tragedies never end. ask people to name a nuclear disaster, and most will probably point to fukushima in japan three years ago. the nuclear meltdown at chernobyl in ukraine was 30 years ago, but the crisis is still with us today. that's because radiation virtually never dies. after the explosion in 1986, the soviets built a primitive sarcophagus, a tomb to cover the stricken reactor. but it wasn't meant to last very

long, and it hasn't. engineers say there is still enough radioactive material in there to cause widespread contamination. for the last five years, a massive project has been underway to seal the reactor permanently. but the undertaking is three quarters of a billion dollars short, and the completion date has been delayed repeatedly. 30 years later, chernobyl's crippled reactor still has the power to kill. it's called "the zone," and getting into it is crossing a border into one of the most contaminated places on earth. the 20-mile no man's land was evacuated nearly 30 years ago, but drive to the center of the zone today and you'll see a massive structure that appears to rise out of nowhere. it's an engineering effort the likes of which the world has never seen. with funds from over 40 different countries, 1,400

workers are building a giant arch to cover the damaged reactor like a casserole. it will be taller than the statue of liberty and wider than yankee stadium, the largest movable structure on earth. nicolas caille is overseeing the arch's construction. you know, when you think about it, you have this massive project going on. all these people working here. billions of dollars being spent because of one day 30 years ago. >> nicolas caille: yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. it was the biggest disaster of the nuclear industry, yes. >> simon: the disaster was sparked by massive explosions that tore the roof off of chernobyl's reactor number four, spewing radioactive dust into the atmosphere. the soviets drafted over half a million troops to put out the fire and clear the nuclear debris. thousands got seriously ill from

radiation exposure. today, three decades later, the cleanup continues. but as this recent video shows, the reactor is still packed with poison-- heaps of gnarled steel and concrete, pools of nuclear fuel that have hardened into a dense mass called the "elephant's foot." there's still so much radiation coming from the reactor that workers have to construct the arch nearly a thousand feet away, shielded by a massive concrete wall. when finished, the arch will be slid into place around the sarcophagus, then sealed up. >> caille: we will push it in once. the average speed, it will be around ten meters an hour, so it's approximately the speed of... of a snail. >> simon: right. but that's pretty rapid, considering the size of this thing. >> caille: it is, yes, yes.

>> simon: but the construction itself will have to move a lot quicker. the old plant and sarcophagus are falling apart. just two years ago, a snowstorm caused the roof of one of the buildings to collapse, forcing workers to be evacuated and raising fears of further contamination. radiation is not subject to the usual rules of life and death. it is virtually eternal. when caille took us on a tour of the site, we were fitted with dosimeters to tell us how much we were being exposed to. suddenly, a sound we didn't want to hear... ( beeper sounding ) >> simon: hey, there's... there's beepers going off. >> caille: no, no. it's not... it's normal. >> simon: you're sure? >> caille: yes, yes, yes. i'm definitively sure. >> simon: i don't like a beeper in chernobyl. ( laughter ) i don't like that sound. building the arch under these conditions is challenging enough.

but some of the biggest obstacles have nothing to do with radiation. as violence gripped ukraine this year, one of the arch's contractors backed out. the project is also $770 million short, and has been plagued by repeated delays. no matter when it's completed, vast stretches of the zone will never recover. this is the city of pripyat, two miles from the reactor. 30 years ago, the population was 50,000. today, it is zero. pripyat was where many of the plant's workers lived, grateful for their posting in a town that was the model of soviet modernity. nine-story apartment buildings lined this boulevard. they're still there, but you can't see them anymore. the forest has taken over, a vision perhaps of what the whole world might look like were people to just disappear. it was springtime in pripyat that day in 1986, and an amusement park was due to open

in a few days. andre glukhov lived here then. so, that ferris wheel never had any kids in it? >> andre glukhov: never had any kids. these bumper cars, on your left, had never kids on it, too. >> simon: when you talk to your former neighbors, what do you call it, "the accident," "the catastrophe"? >> glukhov: we just call it 26, which was the date of the accident. >> simon: 26? >> glukhov: 26th of april. >> simon: sort of like the americans call 9/11? >> glukhov: exactly. >> simon: back then, glukhov worked for chernobyl's nuclear safety division. he took us on a tour through a part of the plant that had not been destroyed. he was off duty that night, but what he saw when he drove past the damaged reactor was like nothing he, or anyone else, had ever seen. >> this is the control room. >> glukhov: this was a terrifying picture.

it looked like a sunset in the distance, about 100, 200 yards from you. ( clears throat ) and this was the glowing core of the reactor. >> simon: that was the first and the only time you saw it? >> glukhov: no, that was the first time when i realized the scale of the disaster. >> simon: glukhov told his family in pripyat to stay inside and close the windows. soviet authorities covered the area with secrecy, told people they had nothing to worry about. but 36 hours later, over a thousand busses were sent in to evacuate everyone. authorities told people it would only be for three days, one of many lies. the people never came back, and pripyat is being overwhelmed by the elements.

one of the only things still recognizable is that old soviet iconography. drive through the zone, and you'll find that many villages suffered the same fate as pripyat. a row of simple markers has been planted with the names of each one. but amidst this wilderness, the strangest sight of all-- people, just a few. ivan ivanovitch and his wife maria were evacuated to an apartment block near kiev after the accident, but couldn't take it. they weren't made for the city, so two years later, they came back. today, there are three other people living in this village just a few miles from the old power plant. when you decided to come back to live here, did anyone tell you it was dangerous? >> translator: it's really okay here.

you know, when i lived in that apartment block, i got sick all the time. but when i came back here, i was fine. and i've been fine ever since. >> simon: you should never leave home. >> translator: i would be long gone if i'd stayed there. i'd be in the ground. >> simon: despite the danger, tim mousseau also chose to be here. for the last 15 years, the university of south carolina biologist has been studying the contamination's impact from a makeshift lab inside the zone. aren't many serious labs i've seen that look like this. >> tim mousseau: yeah, this is an opportunistic lab. it's an old villager's house. >> simon: mousseau's research has shown that the catastrophe continues to take its toll. >> mousseau: and we're going to attempt to measure just how radioactive these mice are. >> simon: what's the comparison between the amounts of radiation a mouse would have here and a

mouse somewhere else? >> mousseau: some of these mice have on the order of 10,000 times more radioactivity in their bodies than in clean areas. >> simon: the human toll has been profound, as well. thyroid cancer and leukemia affected thousands, though the exact number of deaths is still being debated. >> mousseau: there certainly is evidence that some of the genetic damage that occurs at the level of the dna can be transmitted from one generation to the next. >> simon: so a nuclear disaster is never over? >> mousseau: there will be areas that will be contaminated for thousands, if not millions of years. >> simon: this makes the zone like no other place on earth, which is why it's attracting tourists. if you've done paris and rome, why not try a holiday in hell, check out the apocalypse? how did your friends react when you told them you were coming on

vacation to chernobyl? >> david mchale: they thought it was very strange, you know. but, i mean, people have been coming here for a while, so, you know, i guess it must be safe. >> simon: you guess it must be safe. what makes you believe it's safe? >> mchale: well, you know, i would assume that the guides wouldn't bring people here if it wasn't safe. >> simon: all right. well, i hope you're right. >> mchale: so do i. >> simon: thousands of workers flood into the zone every day to look after what remains of the plant. others live here year-round, in one of the few places safe enough for inhabitants, the town of chernobyl itself. yevgen goncharenko was our guide. he lives here, too. why are you living here and not in kiev? >> yvengen goncharenko: because i like this place. for me and... it's very-- interesting, maybe even sacred place... >> simon: a sacred place. >> goncharenko: ...for me.

for me, yeah. >> simon: he spends much of his time writing music on his bass guitar, music as desolate as the landscape surrounding him... ♪ ♪ ...as desolate as the remains of this empire that has long since disappeared. a decade after the disaster, workers here built a monument honoring their colleagues whose lives had been destroyed. the workers and the firemen made the monument themselves? >> goncharenko: yeah, yeah, exactly. yeah. >> simon: and what does it say? >> goncharenko: "to those who saved the world." >> simon: "to those who saved the world." that may sound a bit hyperbolic,

but when the reactor exploded in 1986, radioactive dust and debris were carried as far away as italy and sweden. until the arch finally seals up that stricken reactor-- and no one knows when that might be-- something like that could happen again. unlike other historic relics, chernobyl does not belong to the past. its power will never die. chernobyl is forever. >> welcome to the cbs sports update presented by pacific life. i'm james brown with scores from around the nfl today. the bengals stay on top in the a.f.c. north while the browns remain half game back thanks to a 37-yard game-winning field goal. denver stays unbeaten at home as peyton manning tosses four touchdowns. seattle snuffed arizona, ending its six-game win streak. the pats roll, the pack survives, setting up a huge showdown next sunday right here

on cbs. for more sports news and information, go to cbssports.com. for more than 145 years, pacific life has been providing solutions to help individuals like you achieve long-term financial security. bring your vision for the future to life with pacific life. talk to a financial advisor to help build and protect your retirement income. pacific life. the power to help you succeed.

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>> cooper: more than 400,000 americans died fighting in the second world war. adding to the heartache of that staggering loss, nearly one in five of those killed was declared missing in action. to this day, the families of some 73,000 unaccounted-for servicemen have lived with the mystery of how they died, and have been deprived of the comfort that comes from a burial. at the end of the war, the technology didn't exist to find and identify many of the missing, but today, it does. this is the remarkable story of a group of volunteers who spend their own time and money quietly searching for these long lost servicemen-- "remarkable" because of what they've discovered in recent years. they are doing it, they say, for the fallen and their families, and focus on palau, a pacific island nation that saw some of the fiercest fighting of the war 70 years ago, a place some pilots called "a forgotten corner of hell." fly today over palau's 586 small

islands and miles of barrier reefs, and you'll see no sign of the carnage that once occurred here. but beneath the jungle canopy, you can still find the rusted ruins of japanese anti-aircraft guns, and in the clear blue water, a graveyard of planes and the men who flew them. as the second world war raged in the pacific, the islands of palau were teeming with japanese soldiers, and under attack by american planes. the skies overhead were filled with hellcats, corsairs, avengers and b-24 liberators. on september 1, 1944, this b-24, number 453, and its crew took off on a bombing mission. >> announcer: a liberator is hit! >> cooper: 453, like the b-24 in this newsreel, was shot out of the sky and disappeared into the sea. it was one of more than 200 american planes lost over palau during the war.

>> announcer: our pacific island warfare is not cheap. >> pat scannon: this was a tough place. this was no pushover. there was as much anti-aircraft fire available in this part of the pacific as anything that was over tokyo. >> cooper: today, dr. pat scannon leads a group of volunteers that look for the wreckage of american warplanes and the missing airmen who flew them, including 453 and its crew of 11. they call themselves the "bent prop project"; many have military backgrounds. with permission from the palaun government, they come every year, paying their own expenses, to search in the sea and on land. >> scannon: i think that's what took my breath away when i saw that star and bar. >> cooper: when scannon's team finds the remains of americans, they inform the u.s. military, whose job it is to recover and identify the missing airmen. it all started when scannon was vacationing in palau 20 years ago and came across the wing of a b-24 with its propeller sticking out of the water at low tide.

the bent prop gave the group its name. did it surprise you that it was still there? >> scannon: oh, absolutely. >> cooper: that moment you saw that, what did you think? >> scannon: i think somebody died there. >> cooper: the wing and engine of the b-24 scannon found in 1993 are still here, the propeller undisturbed in a few feet of water. scannon says he hasn't been the same since he first found it. >> scannon: it was one of those special moments in life where, from one step to the next, i... i knew i had to know what went on. it just was wrong to me that this wing is sitting here and nobody knows anything about it. finding the answers rarely comes easily or quickly. scannon's team spent ten years looking for 453, acting on hunches and old battlefield reports. but it wasn't until 2004 and a tip from a local fisherman that they finally found the wreckage. that's the tail section of the plane. it was about a mile away from

where they'd been searching all those years. >> scannon: a mile away underwater is... you might as well be on the moon. we spent years doing grid searches in the area that we thought it was. >> cooper: just methodically, square by square, underwater. >> scannon: square by square underwater. because we knew it had to be here. we... you know... you know, a b-24 is a big thing. and you know, at least on the map, these waters don't look that big. so how hard could it be? at least that's what we thought. well, it turns out, it's hard. >> cooper: we went to 453 to dive with pat scannon and his team. the site is now protected by the palaun government. when you enter the water, it's only a few seconds before you see the first signs of the plane. the plane impacted, and as it hit the water... and that's why it's now laying in sections. at first, you might mistake it for coral. in fact, coral has been growing over it. and over here, you can see the propeller. >> scannon: at the end of the game, it's not about finding aluminum.

it's not about finding wreck sites. it's about finding the m.i.a.s who... who are no longer m.i.a. >> cooper: the remains of eight crew members were found at this site, and later recovered and identified by the u.s. military. one of the men was jimmy doyle, a 25-year-old texan who was 453's nose gunner. you can still see the turret where he was sitting when the plane crashed and where his remains were found. that diver, pausing in the spot, is jimmy doyle's grandson, casey doyle, an active duty marine who now volunteers with the bent prop project. >> casey doyle: just to know where the last few moments of his life were is a very special time, and to see that down there, and there's probably still a little physically... a little bit of him and the rest of the crew still down there, so it's an incredibly powerful and special place for me. >> cooper: until bent prop found the wreckage, jimmy doyle's family didn't talk much about him.

some family members actually believed he survived the war and started a new life. what did people say about your grandfather? >> doyle: there's a whole generation of people in my family that just did not speak of this because of... of the unknown. >> scannon: you can tell a family that their loved one is missing, or that their loved ones were captured and were p.o.w.s. but i swear to goodness, i have talked to families who really believe that grandpa somehow made it out, was saved by the natives and had amnesia, and was living on an island being taken care of by young native girls. and he's... >> cooper: and families really believe that. >> scannon: i... i have heard it. >> cooper: why would people think that? >> scannon: i think it comes with the hope that someone missing may show up. >> cooper: jimmy doyle finally returned home with seven of his crew members in 2010, 65 years after their plane was shot out

of the sky. a memorial was held in arlington national cemetery, where some of the men were buried. pat scannon was invited to attend. what was that like to... to be at arlington? >> scannon: i was... i felt that my job on that plane was done. and i actually... i stepped back and watched the ceremony from a ways off. and it was extremely emotional. >> cooper: you're emotional just thinking about it? >> scannon: yeah. it's... i think about it a lot, actually. >> cooper: what's the emotion for you? >> scannon: happiness, that they know what's... what happened. >> cooper: but not everyone from 453 has come home. just after the plane was hit, three crew members parachuted out, including 22-year-old art schumacher. all three were quickly captured by the japanese, and according to witnesses, taken to a camp in the jungle and executed. the bent prop team is still looking for their remains, but

searching on land is no easier than in the ocean. pat scannon has tried to pinpoint the location of the graves by traveling to japan to interview former japanese soldiers stationed in palau. and he's tracked down palauans who say they saw the men just before they were captured. >> scannon: so you saw the parachutes? >> yeah. >> scannon: do you know how many? >> well, i saw like three, i think. >> cooper: one palauan drew a map in the dirt showing where he believed the prisoners were executed. using that information, the bent prop team has identified two spots in the jungle where they think as many as a dozen americans were killed. we were with them when they started digging. the red sticks are where buried pieces of metal were detected-- probably fragments of munitions, but perhaps a prisoner's button or zipper. the chance of finding art schumacher and the others on the first dig may be small, but schumacher's niece jo has flown here from washington. what would it mean to find your

uncle? >> jo: well, gosh, we could bring him home. we could bring him home to family. and we can do a proper burial, we can honor them. and they gave their lives for the country. >> cooper: scannon's team has found debris from at least 30 american planes over the past 20 years. in addition to the eight airmen recovered from 453, bent prop's other discoveries could lead to the return of 16 more m.i.a.s from palau. but many planes crashed in far less accessible parts of the ocean and dense jungle, and their crews never found. do you know how many americans are still missing here? >> scannon: we think it's somewhere between 70, 80 american... american airmen crashed in this area. the real question is how many crashed inside the barrier reef. inside the barrier reef means we can possibly find them. >> cooper: why? because outside...? >> scannon: it's 2,000 feet deep. >> cooper: in 2005, scannon's team found this wing of a tbm avenger in the jungle. they believe the rest of the plane is in the water nearby,

and they've been searching for it the past nine years. >> scannon: we've never been able to find the fuselage, so somewhere out here there's a fuselage with... possibly, with two m.i.a.s on it. >> cooper: to find the avenger, bent prop has now been joined by a team from the scrpps institution of oceanography and the university of delaware. they bring high technology to the hunt. this research torpedo called remus can scan large areas of ocean with sonar. eric terrill leads the effort. >> eric terrill: we ran the remus a few hours off of the mangroves here and found a couple of targets. drop down, get some visuals on the targets. >> scannon: if there's a place it ought to be, it's right here. >> cooper: terrill leads the way with a handheld sonar device and is the first to come across debris, including part of the plane's tail. when the sonar shows signs of something ahead, he turns around to get pat scannon. >> scannon: he comes swimming up to me, grabs my hand, and practically yanks my arm off. and so i figured he probably

knows something. and this gray hulk becomes an airplane. and there's a big propeller right there. you get misty, i got misty underwater. you know, i... you know, "maybe this isn't such a good thing to do underwater, you know?" but, you know, it... i couldn't help it. it was very emotional. and when you put your finger on the plane, it's real. and that's what we did, and... >> cooper: you touch it? >> scannon: you touch it, and... >> cooper: why? >> scannon: i don't know. you know, science is about facts. i mean, my eyes saw it, you know? i mean, so fact was it was there. but touching it, you know, just gave it a sense of finality... we all knew the... what this was and what it meant. >> cooper: there are americans down there? >> scannon: there are americans down there. the families don't even know yet. and it's... it's not that i'm wanting to keep a secret, but we also... until the remains are properly identified, we don't want to hold out false hope.

>> cooper: to get proper identification, bent prop notifies the u.s. military of the discovery, but the actual recovery and identification of remains by the military can take years. >> scannon: this plane was shot down over this area the fourth of may, 1945. >> cooper: every time bent prop finds wreckage of a plane with missing airmen, they hold a small ceremony. they videotape it so that, one day, the families of the m.i.a.s will know the respect shown to them by scannon and his team, who spent their own time and money to find them. over the avenger crash site this year, bent prop unfurls an american and a palauan flag, and speak of the men who were lost. they say their names, their ages, what they've learned of their lives. and at the end of every ceremony, pat scannon recites a poem written during world war i. it's called "for the fallen." would you read it to me? >> scannon: sure, i'll read it to you. i can't read it without standing up. can i stand up? >> cooper: of course.

>> scannon: so... "they shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. at the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them." >> anderson cooper dives with the bent prop team. go to 60minutesovertime.com. sponsored by lyrica. i was on the go. i kept on top of things. i was a doer. then the chronic, widespread pain slowed me down. my doctor and i agreed that moving more helps ease fibromyalgia pain. he also prescribed lyrica. fibromyalgia is thought to be the result of overactive nerves. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. for some patients, lyrica significantly relieves fibromyalgia pain and improves physical function. with less pain i feel better,

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>> kroft: i'm steve kroft. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes." when diet and exercise aren't enough,

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newswoman: heavy fighting continues today in northern iraq, as kurdish peshmerga try to dislodge fighters from the so-called islamic state, or isis, from areas around the oil-rich city of kirkuk. newsman: a delegation from the newly created government of iraq has arrived in the capitol. they'll be meeting with secretary of state elizabeth mccord before moving on to the white house to appeal for more help in their fight against the insurgent sunni islamist group isis. newswoman: their request comes against the backdrop of insurgent gains in the anbar province, the scene of some of the heaviest fighting during the u.s.'s ten-year engagement in iraq. marines took heavy losses in two separate battles to wrest control of fallujah from sunni insurgents in 2004, but now the city is effectively ruled by isis. (starts engine)

newsman: president dalton is reportedly weighing whether to redeploy u.s. troops in what the administration insists... morning. hey. (turns off radio) uh-oh. the serious mom face. no. so, uh... be honest, how worried should i be about isis? you let me worry about isis. you worry about getting your dad up at 7:00. he's got a flight to catch. all right, fine. keep your walls up. what are you talking about? we talk about stuff all the time. what are you doing today? work, obviously. oh. right. so, do they have a, um, a dress code there, or is it... mom! what? (laughs) okay, okay, i will let it go, because you have a really big day with the iraqis, but... just for the sake of world peace, can you please promise me that you'll be a little bit less passive-aggressive when you talk to them? that outfit just doesn't say "front of the house" to me. there-- all aggressive, no passive. mom, i know what i'm doing. i mean... i know.