On the 8 October 1927, USMC aviators Second Lieutenant Earl Thomas and his observer-gunner Sergeant Frank Dowdell, flying a Vought O2U Corsair, of squadron VO-8M, had to crash-land on a Nicaraguan ridge known as Sapotillal for unknown reasons.

[8] After destroying the plane and its machine guns, the two American Marine airmen started to head for Quilalí on foot, using a map dropped by their wingman, Mike "the Polish Warhorse" Wodarczyk.

[12] The remains of Thomas and Dowdell were not recovered[13][14] "Twelve miles north at Jícaro," Lieutenant George J. O'Shea, not knowing the fates of the two airmen, organized an expedition of eight other American Marines, ten Nicaraguan National Guardsmen, and one member of the United States Navy (Dr. John B. O'Neill) to rescue them.

"[24] A Thompson submachine gun and rifle grenades were used quite effectively by the Americans and their Nicaraguan allies, "demonstrating the high value of these two weapons in close-range bush warfare.

[26] Although their native guides had abandoned them during the fight and O'Shea had lost his compass,[27] the exhausted patrol arrived back in El Jícaro "just before midnight" on the 10 October.