11/22/2008 10:06:00 PM
Adventurer-turned-historian continues quest for answers
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| Courtesy/MIARecoveries.org
Prescott resident Clayton Kuhles stands by warplane wreckage that he found on a recent seven-week expedition to the mountains of India. For the past five years, Kuhles has been on a mission to find and document the sites of the planes that crashed in the area during World War II.
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For the elderly tribesmen from deep in the Himalayas of India, the image of World War II planes falling from the sky apparently did not fade through the decades.
Even though more than 60 years have gone by since the men - now in their 80s - witnessed the crashes, their memories were still vivid when Prescott's Clayton Kuhles recently tracked three of them down.
"I was impressed by how their stories were the same," Kuhles said this past week, fresh from his most recent foray into the jungle to find and identify WWII crash sites that have been largely forgotten since the 1940s.
And for the first time, Kuhles got a first-hand account of how the hundreds of WWII plane crashes that litter the area have affected the nearby villagers.
One elderly tribal member summed up the villagers' bewilderment about the continued obscurity of the crash sites.
"He asked me, 'Why has it taken 60 years for the Americans to come here?'" Kuhles said, adding: "It was one of the more poignant remarks I heard."
For Kuhles, a 54-year-old Prescott businessman, the matter has become a personal mission. He has made numerous trips to the mountainous area that became known as "The Hump" and the "Aluminum Trail" because of the hundreds of planes that crashed there on treacherous supply missions that were part of the China Burma India Theater of WWII.
On his recent seven-week trip, Kuhles found six new crash sites, and returned to one he had previously visited.
This past week, he obviously was still digesting the impact that his expeditions have had - not only on the villages that lie near the sites, but on the hundreds of family members with ties to the U.S. military men who died.
"I get e-mails every day from people who have read the articles," Kuhles said of the many news accounts that his expeditions have produced. "The sons, daughters, nephews - all of them are truly interested."
Indeed, it is that positive feedback that keeps Kuhles going back again and again, spending his own money and time to help account for the hundreds of missing servicemen.
In everyday life, Kuhles said, "It's difficult to make a difference. But when I get these heartfelt letters from total strangers, thanking me for what I've done, that's what keeps me going back."
One of those grateful survivors is 90-year-old Prescott resident Verna (Chambers Swope) Martin, whose brother was a victim of the 1944 crash of a B-24 aircraft dubbed the "Hot as Hell."
Martin, a resident of the Arizona Pioneers Home, went for most of her adult life not knowing what became of her little brother, Sheldon Chambers, a co-pilot on the Hot as Hell. Her family finally got answers after Kuhles found the crash site in 2006 and posted names on his website, www.miarecoveries.org.
"This guy is really helping people," Martin said of Kuhles this week. In her family's case, Kuhles' discovery has set off a nationwide push to get the U.S. government to recover the remains of the eight men who died on the Hot as Hell.
While Kuhles has had a passion since childhood for outdoor adventure, his interest in documenting the history of the fallen WWII planes came later in life. He visited his first crash site in the early 2000s after his local Himalayan guide suggested a side trip there.
That taste of history led Kuhles to return home and attempt to identify the plane and its crew. After regular returns to the Himalayas since then, Kuhles has now found and documented about 15 sites.
He currently is researching the six new crashes by using information he gathered, including GPS readings, the locals' eye-witness accounts, and - sometimes, when he's lucky -a flight number from the side of the aircraft.
Kuhles cross-references that information with documentation in "The Aluminum Trail," a book that lists the 1942-to-1945 casualties of the Himalayan Hump, as well as official crash reports from the Mesa-based Aviation Archaeology and Investigation Research organization.
This year, the growing interest in Kuhles' work helped to attract the attention of a Washington Post news reporter, who joined Kuhles on one of his expeditions, as well as a documentary filmmaker, who recorded the entire mission.
For Kuhles, the dangerous conditions of the hikes - complete with threats of cobras and monsoon flooding - have done nothing to dampen his enthusiasm for future expeditions.
"If I could get funding (from the documentary effort), I'd go back this winter," he said.
Contact the reporter at cbarks@prescottaz.com
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Posted: Sunday, November 23, 2008
Article comment by:
Jon Elkin
The US Government propaganda "No man left behind" is crafted by politicians for inexperienced and idealistic young men to reassure them of support as they are directed to place their lives in jeopardy during various military missions. I clearly remember being given a gas mask and poncho and told that I could use them in conjunction with crouching in a foxhole and be protected from from nuclear weapons. Ha-ha! Young men feel they never will be the ones who will die. Old men use that misconception to get those young men to die for causes dear to the hearts of the old men. I once was such a idealistic young man. Now I am an old man who understands. Compared to most other countries, and I have seen many, America is a good country. However, that being said, American powers-to-be will use their subjects as callously as any dictatorship when they feel the need to do so. When they find it politically or economically expedient, politicians (read, rulers) will sacrifice anyone at any time. We have left behind any number of people during our many conflicts. Reading history now is very easy. Google any question; use your best judgment; and read away. At the end of WWII, Germany and the Allies left many German prisoners to rot in Soviet gulags for tens of years. America apparently also lost some soldiers to the Soviets during that war. At the end of the Korean war, we abandoned many American GIs to suffer in North Korean (and, possibly, Soviet and Chinese) prison camps. Eisenhower, the hero of WWII, as President knew and condoned this in the interest of political expediency. The Viet Nam war was even worse. It should not be surprising that our nation conveniently forgot those who died flying the hump once the war ended. Thank you Mr. Kules.
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