Why did Curris look for the "Flying Tiger" for 20 years?
In Search of the Lost Flying Tiger: 20 Years of American Explorer Clayton Curries"
The 13-member team was found by rescuers at 3 p.m. on May 15, looking for a plane that crashed on the "Hump Route" during World War II, the "China Airlines No. 60", and the remains of the pilots who died on board.
Team leader Sun Chunlong recorded in the article that in June 2011, the American explorer Curris found the detailed location of the crash, but due to weather conditions, the search was forced to be suspended.
Curris has been searching for wrecked planes on the Hump route on his own for 20 years and has so far recovered 27 crashes and confirmed the whereabouts of 279 missing people.
In an exclusive interview with "Stuff Ask", he said that he did all this just to bring the hero pilot home. In the 20 years of searching for the crash of the Flying Tigers, the search for the 60 was one of his most impressive expeditions, and the people he met in China were very friendly and welcoming, and when he learned that he was searching for the Flying Tigers who had helped China in the war of resistance, "they did everything possible to help."
Curris recalled.
In 2011, Clayton Curris traveled to Yunnan to find the body of "No. 60" and bring it back to his hometown for burial. The client was Robert L. Willett, a cousin of James, the co-pilot of the "60".
In that year, in order to transport international aid materials to China, Roosevelt, then the United States, accepted Chennault's suggestion, opened up the Sino-Indian air route, and recruited hundreds of American volunteers to resist Japan to Kunming.
Among them is 21-year-old James. The China-India airway is a route that has been carved out from the Himalayas and the dense jungles of Myanmar. But the route is a harsh and unpredictable climate, with strong drafts and low pressure often alternating with many planes being blown off the course for miles, running out of fuel before they can find a landing site, being hit into a hill by strong winds, or stalling and falling due to excessive ice on the surface of the aircraft.
On November 17, 1942, James, as a co-pilot, boarded the "No. 60" loaded with tin ingots with pilot John and a Chinese operator and headed for Tingjiang, India.
One hour after the flight from Kunming, John spoke with Robertson, a pilot of the Chinese Aviation Corporation, saying that the "No. 60" had been seriously iced and asked about the southerly route. This was the last radio signal left by "No. 60", and it has not been heard from since.
Curris speculated that "No. 60" likely turned southwest after the call, trying to reach the "Charlie Route", and Cangshan or south of Cangshan could be used as a starting point for the search.
In the search for the missing aircraft on the Hump route, Kuris discovers a part of the suspicions"China Airlines No. 60"of the wreckage. He speculated that the bones of the warriors might have been collected by local villagers and buried, or that the bones had been buried underground due to the effects of terrain, hydraulic erosion, and **.
However, due to lack of funds, he had to suspend the search for the remains of the pilot. However, Curris did not give up and expressed his willingness to search with the team in China"Number 60"willingness.
He believes that if he can raise enough funds, he is willing to return to Cangshan and continue to look for James. Kuris's journey began with a stumble discovery of the Hump Route, where he saw one in a rocky canyon in Burma"World War II"period of aircraft wreckage.
He decided to look for the missing planes because he believed that someone should go to them to find these young people who had left their relatives behind to fight for peace in a foreign country, find their whereabouts, and give their relatives an explanation.
Although it was a challenging and difficult path, Curris persevered because, he believed, it was a tribute to the young people who fought for peace.
For 20 years, Curris has been entrusted by the families of the missing pilots of the Hump route to work on the search for the missing aircraft. He began by studying in detail all accident reports related to the missing aircraft, identifying key clues such as approved flight paths, altitudes, weather and radio communication records to determine the search area.
He would then personally head to the planned search area, visiting villagers and hunters for clues and hiring them as local guides to assist in the search for the wreckage of the plane.
By May of this year, Curris had successfully recovered the wreckage of 27 planes and identified the whereabouts of 279 missing people.
In his search for the wreckage of other crashes on the Hump Route, Curris discovers the remains of Robert Eugene and the bomber he was flying. Although he found the remains as early as 2006, the military did not provide any substantial support for his search project.
Curris has been propping up the project on his own, even though he is nearly 70 years old. Last December, he found a C-46 transport plane that had crashed in 1945 on the India-Burmese border, carrying 13 people.
This fall, he plans to go again in search of the young faces who have disappeared into the dust of history. The book was of great help to Curris, and in addition to the detailed flight information, he remembered a poem written by a mother included in the book: "Where is my son?".
I would like to devote my life to another knowledge!Is it a mission to reach and go to the Promised Land?Or still coiled Tianzhu, wandering the mountains and forests ......"Their families need answers, and I'm going to keep going until one day I can't do it." ”