Clayton Currys walks on the suspension bridge. Image source: MIA Recoveries, Inc
One person is looking for the "falling" "flying tiger"
Reporter of this magazine/Li Jing
Published in 2022.5.30 issue 1045 of the total " China News Weekly "
Fortunately, it was just a false alarm. At 3 pm on May 15, the last batch of missing persons who had been paying attention to by the media and the public for several days were found by rescuers. A team of 13 people was all evacuated and went down the mountain safely. Their trip was to find a crashed plane on the " Hump Route " during " World War II " - "China Airlines No. 60" (CNAC#60), as well as the remains of the dead pilot on the plane.
In all versions of the reports, an American explorer named Curry vaguely appeared. The exact crash location of CNAC#60 has coordinate descriptions in the information he left behind. In the article published by Sun Chunlong, the leader of the 13-person team and the initiator of the "Veteran Go Home" project, recorded that in June 2011, American explorer Curry finally found the detailed location of the crash at the foot of Malong Peak located in Cangshan, Dali, Yunnan. However, on the day of arriving at the scene, it suddenly started to rain heavily and the search was forced to stop.
Clayton Kuhles, who lives in the Bradshaw Mountains, Arizona, still remembers the trip to China more than 10 years ago. In the 20 years he has searched for the wreckage of the US " Flying Tigers " crash, he has found 27 crashes and 279 missing persons have confirmed their whereabouts. Searching for "No. 60" was one of his most impressive adventures. Because in the deep mountains and dense forests of other countries, he "had never been treated and accepted so well by the locals." Currys recalled to China Newsweek that the Chinese people he met along the way in Yunnan were very friendly and enthusiastic to him. He learned that Currys came to search for the "Flying Tigers" who had helped China's war of resistance, and "they did everything they could to help search."
But the records of Curry's experience on the Internet are not very accurate. "I arrived at the crash site of CNAC#60, found the plane, and clearly identified the wreckage based on the aircraft's serial number." Currys told China Newsweek with certainty that there was another reason why he did not continue to excavate or search for the pilot's remains.
Looking for "No. 60"
Pull out the dense shrubs, climb the ridge along the path covered with large and large gravels, and then slide down a steep slope. A clearing with metal debris appeared in front of Curry. Due to heavy rain and steep roads, his search has failed twice. After several days and nights of climbing and camping, Curry and the local guide finally found the "No. 60" he had been looking for for a long time. Large pieces of wreckage such as
wings, propellers and engine have long disappeared, and the small pieces of debris are mixed in the middle of the large skeleton and extend to the stream below the rock. The huge impact force of the plane crashed that year caused most of the fuselage to penetrate deep into the earth. In 1950, a major earthquake in the Cangshan area covered a large number of landslides and crushed rocks. Currys' metal detector shows that many large pieces of metal are buried deep 0.5 miles (about 800 meters) underground.
other Hump route crash wreckage found by Curry. Image source: MIA Recoveries, Inc
During this trip to Yunnan, Curry's client was the same as the 13-man team in China 11 years later - "No. 60" co-pilot James 's cousin Robert L. Willett. Robert sent all the information about "No. 60" in his hand to Currys, including some little-known details. He told him that he grew up with James and his old age wish was to find James' body, take him back to his hometown, and be buried under the tombstone that James' parents had already set up for him decades ago, which read: Dear son, you have left us too early.
memory needs to be traced to the distant year of 1942, when China was cut off from the Yunnan-Burma Highway by the Japanese army. In order to transport international aid materials, the then US President Roosevelt accepted the suggestion of Chennard , who was a flight instructor in China at the time, opened up the Sino-Indian air route, set aside 100 fighter jets from the strategic materials to aid Britain, and recruited hundreds of American volunteer anti-Japanese youth to Kunming, including James, who was sometimes 21 years old.
Those American-aided aircraft have the tiger logo and shark logo with wings on the nose, which are affectionately called "Flying Tigers" by local people. The China-India air route is a route opened from the Himalayas and the dense jungle of Myanmar. At that time, the maximum climbing height of the main transport aircraft of the US military did not exceed this mountain range, and could only pass through a notch recessed in the foothills south of the Himalayas. The "hunch" is named after it. The route has a harsh and varied climate, with strong airflow and low air pressure often alternately. Many aircraft are blown several miles from the route, exhausted fuel before finding the landing site, or hit the mountain by strong winds, or stalled due to excessive freezing of the plane's surface and fell from the air. The transport unit of the Hump route is composed of a U.S. Army Corps and Chinese Airline. At that time, the Chinese Airline was a joint venture with Pan American Airlines. The pilots were generally American.
On November 17, 1942, James, as co-pilot, pilot John and a Chinese radio operator, boarded "China Airlines No. 60". Their plane was filled with tin ingots and the destination was Tingjiang, India. One hour after flying away from Kunming, "60" pilot John talked with the AVIC pilot Robertson , who was flying eastward, saying that "60" had been severely frozen. He asked Robertson if the southbound route was in better condition? Robertson had just flew over the Charlie Route south of the Hump route, and he replied that the Charlie Route was in good condition and he did not see the Japanese devils. This is the last radio signal left by "No. 60", and after that it disappeared into radio waves , and there was no news.
Currys speculated that the aircraft was loading a large number of tin ingots, which was heavy and the fuselage was severely frozen. The pilot John of "No. 60" was very likely to turn to southwest after the call and try to arrive at the "Charlie Route". Curris drew the Hump Route and Charlie Route on the map. Through calculations, he inferred that Cangshan or somewhere south of Cangshan was the most reasonable place he began to look for "No. 60".
After that, Curry searched for historical information and parties and asked for information. A former US military "World War II" pilot named Clark confirmed his speculation. Clark recalled that when he was flying over the Camel Route, he saw a wreckage of an aircraft at a very high place on the west side of Cangshan Mountain. It was just a ridge below the peak, above the forest line, so he could clearly see that the latitude was similar to that of Dali Ancient City , and slightly southerly. The location of the plane wreckage he described was the area where Curris marked the map that might have passed through Cangshan. Clark remembers that the crashed plane was like the C-47 transport aircraft , which is also the model of "No. 60".
Some of the wreckages suspected to be "China Airlines No. 60". Image source: MIA Recoveries, Inc
After detailed investigation, the location of "No. 60" was basically determined, and Curry's search funds were finally in place. Currys told China Newsweek that he raised his own funding for the search for the US military's hump crashed plane over the past 20 years, and the US government and military have never provided any funding support. An average of 2 months of search costs about $15,000. Searching for "No. 60" comes from donations from several related associations and client Robert L. Willett family with historical CNAC (Chinese Airline).
In September 2011, Curry set out.The first step is to find an English-speaking mountaineering guide in Dali . For so many years, Curry has been operating alone in the United States. When he searched for the crashed plane, he then hired an English-speaking guide and local villagers who were more familiar with the terrain.
In several small villages on the west side of Cangshan Mountain, Currys asked the village and quickly found seven villagers. They all knew that an aircraft crashed on the mountain at the end of 1942. The description of the crash site was almost consistent with that of former pilot Clark. Two of them were quite familiar with the plane crash. A villager told Curris that at the end of 1942, when his father was going up the mountain to hunt, he saw an aircraft circling and falling at a very steep angle. During the downward fall, things kept falling down, either the plane was disintegrating or throwing cargo. Eventually, it swooped towards the mountain and crashed on the ridge below the peak. Another villager saw the wreckage of the plane circled by crows while going up the mountain to collect herbs and two or three corpses. He noticed that the bodies of those corpses were obviously taller than those of the locals in Yunnan. Someone once saw deformed tin ingots on the riverbed, and later the rising river water in the spring washed the tin ingots downstream and were covered with weeds.
Before finding the crash site, Curry had basically confirmed that this was the "China Airlines No. 60" he was looking for. After changing two groups of guides from local villagers, when he entered the mountain for the third time in 90 days, Curry finally put on the last puzzle - he arrived at the crash site. Although the fuselage fragments were broken and messy, he identified the serial number of the plane on one of the fragments.
No human skeleton was found at the scene. Currys told China Newsweek that there are two possibilities for the whereabouts of the skeletons. The older generation in the village on the west side of Cangshan once told their children that in that era, the Chinese were very grateful to the Flying Tigers. They understood that these young Americans came to China to participate in the war to help the Chinese. Then, one day they sacrificed and could not expose them to the wilderness. There was a rumor in the village that a hunter collected the corpses of the sacrificed soldiers and found a secluded place to bury them, but this statement was not confirmed. There is also a possibility that these bones were buried deep in the earth around the wreckage due to steep terrain, hydraulic erosion and the 1950 earthquake.
Currys told China Newsweek that in order to confirm two possibilities, either large and medium-sized machinery is needed to be excavated, or a large amount of time, manpower and material resources are needed to search on a large scale. At that time, his donated funds had been used up. He informed the client Robert L. Willett, who failed to raise more funds, and after discussion, the search for "No. 60" stopped at this point.
After returning to the United States, Curry heard that a Chinese team was going to find "No. 60". He expressed his willingness to lead the way and participate together, but because of the financial problems, it was finally left unresolved. "If I can raise funds for finding the body, I am willing to go back to Cangshan at any time and continue to look for James," Curry told China Newsweek.
leap "Camel"
embarked on the road to find the US military fighter jet that fell on the Hump. In Curry's view, it was just a coincidence. Currys was born in the mid-1950s and lived with his family in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado with his family. As an adult, he spent most of his spare time on mountaineering and off-road adventures, climbing the main mountains of almost every continent. As his life entered the second half, he began to rethink mountaineering, "I really need to find a more valuable and meaningful purpose for my mountaineering and adventure," Currys said.
Transfer is coming soon. In 2002, when he was climbing Kaikabo Peak in Myanmar, he heard a porter say that not far from the next stop he was about to arrive, there was a crashed unnamed plane. Driven by curiosity, Curry followed the other party, trying to find out what was going on.In a rocky canyon, he saw a shattering wreck of "C-47". "It looks like it was from the 'World War II' period." Curry thought that he took down some data boards, recorded the situation of the wreckage as much as possible, and brought the data to the US Embassy at the time, located in Yangon . Embassy staff told Curris after identification that he likely found a U.S. aircraft that disappeared due to a crash during World War II during World War II. At that time, Curry had never heard of the word "hunch".
After returning to the United States, Curry found all the information about the Hump route and went to participate in the annual reunion event of the old Hump pilots. Hearing them tell the sad Hump flight stories. The veterans mentioned that their friends never returned that year, and when they talked about the chairs in the canteen, they still felt sad and melancholy.
In September 2011, Clayton Curry (second from right) and his guide in Dali, Yunnan. Image source: MIA Recoveries, Inc
Camel route is one of the longest, most difficult and most expensive air routes in the history of world war air freight. From May 1942 to August 1945, the Hump route transported more than 800,000 tons of strategic materials. According to figures released by the US Department of Defense, more than 500 American aircraft and 1,200 personnel disappeared on this route. These plane debris are scattered along the way in the deep mountain canyons and snow-capped glaciers that are more than 800 kilometers long. On sunny days, these aluminum sheets will shine under the sun. Veterans told Curris that when the weather was clear, we could fly along the reflection of the crash debris of the comrades. They were like sacrificing comrades to guide future generations. People gave this valley covered with wreckage of comrades, a metal-cold name - Aluminum Valley.
A considerable number of planes and young people who "fall" in the valley have not been retrieved and are marked as MIA (Missing in action), meaning missing during action. Curris believes that this should not be done. "They left their relatives behind and went to a foreign country to fight for peace. Someone should go to find them and find their whereabouts and give them an explanation to their relatives who are waiting in their hometown."
In 2003, he returned to Myanmar and collected the bones, personal items around the wreckage found the year before, and sent them to the US Embassy. The latter was transferred to the forensic laboratory of the JPAC (Joint Verification Command of Prisoners/Missive Combat Persons). After DNA identification, personal belongings and pilot remains were handed over to the pilot's family and taken back to their hometown for burial. Currys attended the funeral of one of the pilots for 60 years. The pilot's family said to Currys: "It's been 60 years, and we have been waiting for him to come home." This sentence touched him very much. From then on, Currys decided to specialize in the former China-Myanmar-Indian War Zone and Hump routes, and continue to search for the MIA Hump crash.
In the following 20 years, Curry often received commissions from the families of the missing pilots on the Hump Route. Each time, he would carefully study all accident archive reports related to the missing aircraft, looking for useful clues, such as the flight routes approved at the time, the flight altitude of the aircraft, the weather conditions, and the aircraft's radio communication records. Taking all the information into account, coupled with Curris’ years of field experience, intuition can help him draw up the search area. Once the preliminary research phase is completed, he goes to the area he is planning to search and visits local villagers. During the numerous visits, they always encounter villagers or hunters who know about the plane crash, and they hired these people as local guides to search for wreckage. As of May this year, Curris has found 27 aircraft wreckage, and 279 missing persons have been confirmed.
The most well-known one is probably "Eugene Goes Home" in 2017. In June of this year, the Georgia government held a grand funeral in his hometown of "Concord" for Robert Eugene Oxford, a member of the Flying Tigers and Captain Robert Eugene Oxford, the US Air Force's 14th Air Brigade. At the funeral, the U.S. Air Force fighter jet fleet flew over the cemetery, and the guard of honor fired guns to pay tribute to Eugene.On that day, more than 200 Chinese people flocked to the small "Concord" city with less than 400 residents. They came from the surrounding cities after hearing the news and bid farewell to Eugene's last journey for the Chinese Anti-Japanese War . The Chinese’s memory of this history is also one of the things that makes Curris feel most moved.
To say whether there are any regrets in twenty years, Currys said that the U.S. government and veterans organizations have never provided any meaningful support for his MIA search project. "They have never donated a dollar to fund the search for these missing people... This project should have been the most important to them."
In 2006, Currys found Eugene's remains and the "Hot as Hell" B-24 Liberator bomber he was flying in the depths of the jungle of India. But when he returned to China to submit a report urging relevant parties to take action, he found that although the military had departments specifically dealing with MIA, the actual efficiency was very low. It took almost 10 years to complete the DNA comparison and Eugene's identity was confirmed.
Now, Curry, who is nearly 70 years old, is still supporting the search for the "Camel" crash project alone. In December last year, he just went to the India-Myanmar border and found an C-46 transport aircraft that crashed on its way from Kunming to Chabua, India in 1945. It carried 13 people on board. This fall, he plans to go again to find the young faces that have disappeared from the smoke of history. He has read a book called The Aluminum Trail, author Chick Mars Quinn, the widow of the Flying Tigers. She disappeared on her way to Kunming in February 1945. She has investigated the crashed plane on the Hump Route for more than 40 years, and this book has greatly helped Curry. In addition to the detailed flight information, he still remembers the poem written by a mother included in the book: "Where is my son? I am willing to spend my whole life with another knowledge! Is the mission prosperous, can I go to the paradise? Or still lingering in India and wandering around the mountains and forests..." Currys told China Newsweek, "Their family needs answers, and I will continue until one day I can't stand it."
