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January 2005

Texas Trip Visiting WWII Pilots (see photos)

Clayton’s continued interest to locate WWII MIA aircraft and Khine’s fascination with the history of the Flying Tigers (inherited from her late father who was a pilot with the Burmese Air Force), and her project to revisit the historic sites of the CBI Theater, led us to become acquainted with several WWII veterans.
Among them were Joe Rosbert and David L. “Tex“ Hill whose names are already familiar to many of the veterans.

Clayton first learned about Joe’s adventures quite some time ago through Fletcher Hanks, another former CNAC pilot. Khine on the other hand, became acquainted with Tex in early 2004 through a mutual friend and has been regularly corresponding with him.

Finally, we decided to visit Joe and Tex and recently flew to Texas. Upon arriving in Houston, we drove to Katy to visit Joe Rosbert at his home. Joe was an AVG pilot in the 1st Squadron (Adam & Eve), and then went on to fly 150 missions over the Hump with CNAC, after the AVG was disbanded. After the war, Joe was one of the founders of Flying Tiger Line (the famous air freight carrier that later sold to Federal Express), and flew for Civil Air Transport (CAT) and Air America. Joe and his co-pilot, Ridge Hammel, were among the very few airmen to survive a walkout from high in the Himalayas, after crashing CNAC 58 in NE India on April 7, 1943.
After a grueling 47 day struggle through the mountains and jungles, Joe and Ridge were rescued by Mishmi tribesmen, who then contacted a remote British outpost.

We spent a few hours visiting with Joe who was able to shed some light to Clayton on the location of the CNAC 58 crash site. Clayton will mount an expedition to CNAC 58 later this year.

From there, we drove to San Antonio to visit AVG pilot, Tex Hill at his home.
Tex, in spite of his busy schedule was able to spare some time for us as he reminisced about his ‘old haunts’ in Yunnan and Burma. Tex led the historic AVG raid on the Salween River Gorge, effectively delaying the Japanese entry into the Yunnan province. As Fighter Group commander of the AVG 2nd Squadron (Panda Bears), Tex scored 12 ¼ victories, making him a fighter ace. When the AVG was disbanded in 1942, Tex accepted a field commission to major in the Army Air Corps, and commanded the newly-formed 75th Fighter Squadron. During that combat tour and a second tour as 23rd Fighter Group commander, Tex downed another 6 enemy aircraft, bringing his total to 18 ¼ victories. Tex retired as a Brigadier General.

We both have enormous respect towards all the veterans whom we have come to know over the past year, and who have shared with us their vivid memories of the Burma Campaign during WWII. Their personal achievements and experiences are truly inspiring as we continue to learn more about them by meeting them personally, via e-mail, over the phone and through many history books.

It was wonderful to finally meet Joe and Tex, two fascinating WWII pilots whom we have heard so much about. We certainly hope to have the opportunity to meet other WWII pilots and veterans in the near future.

November 2004

UPCOMING TOURS

Burma-Siam Death Railway (see photos)

One of the most notorious events to occur in the China-Burma-India theater during WWII was the construction of the infamous Death Railway by Allied POW’s. The Japanese army forced thousands of POW’s and conscripted Asian laborers to build this engineering marvel, connecting the rail system of southern Thailand to the British-built rail line at Thanbyuzayat, Burma. An estimated 110,000 people died in the process.

CBI Expeditions is organizing the first-ever tours of the Death Railway route. In preparation, we have recently gone to Thailand and Burma to meet with local officials and interview leading experts on the Death Railway. The Burma side of the route has never been explored or documented since 1946. CBI Expeditions is currently working with Burmese officials to obtain permission to conduct a thorough exploration of the Death Railway within Burma.

Our Death Railway tour will start in Bangkok. Transportation will be arranged from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi. In Kanchanaburi we will visit the Death Railway Museum, visit the Kanchanaburi and Chungkai War Cemeteries, and then head north along the Death Railway route. Our guide throughout will be Mr. Rod Beattie, founder of the Death Railway Museum, Director of the Commonwealth War Graves in Thailand, and the world’s foremost historian on the Death Railway. We will ride the renovated train route from Kanchanaburi to Nam Tok Station, then board vehicle transport for the journey north to Three Pagodas Pass and into Burma. Along the way we will make numerous stops to explore the jungle covered right-of-way, remains of bridges, former work camps and cemeteries. We will cross into Burma at Three Pagodas Pass, and then explore our way north to Thanbyuzayat. After visiting the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at Thanbyuzayat, we will drive north to Moulmein and finish in Rangoon.

Please review the attached photos, and let us know if you are interested in joining this remarkable tour.

Khine and Clayton have just returned from an MIA search expedition in Burma.

They have successfully located and visited the site of a crashed B-24, and determined the location of two additional B-24 crashes. Preliminary research indicates these three sites may account for 28 airmen. Khine and Clayton will be returning to Burma in early 2005 to excavate these sites and verify aircraft ID.

Full details on the downed aircraft and their crews will be made public after further investigation of the crash sites in January.

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