Guilford County, NC - Family Welcomes Home Lost Pilot

                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For 61 years, Chinese villagers tended grave of unknown soldier
 
Family members of World War II fighter pilot Lt. Robert Hoyle Upchurch 
and others who attended the pilot's belated funeral watch a group of A-10 
Thunderbolt jets pass in his honor. The remains of Upchurch were identified 
and flown home from China 61 years after his plane was said to have crashed 
in bad weather. 
  
In a small church cemetery near the Deep River, Hoyle Upchurch had long 
been remembered on a tombstone, his name engraved between those of his 
mother and father.

The inscription reads:

Lt. Robert H. Upchurch

Their son

August 23, 1923

Missing in Action in a P-40 near Kanchow, China

Oct. 6, 1944

On Saturday, Upchurch finally came home to the resting place his parents 
intended, more than 61 years after his plane fell from the sky over China 
and villagers buried with honor the body of an American whose name they 
never knew.

Marie Preslar, 83, remembers the boy with wavy light brown hair who dreamed 
of becoming a pilot. On the night she and Upchurch's class of just 18 
students graduated, he left to work in a plant that manufactured bomber 
planes in Texas. Then, when he turned 18, he joined the Army Air Corps, 
precursor of the Air Force.

Upchurch was 21 and completing his first mission as part of the famed Flying 
Tigers squadron when his plane ran into bad weather as it climbed over the 
high peaks of the Chinese countryside.

The plane crashed into a mountain in Guidong, where villagers retrieved his 
broken body and wrapped it in red cloth.

They held a funeral -- saying prayers and drinking rice wine -- then buried 
Upchurch near a Ming Dynasty tower.

For 60 years, people of Guidong cared for the grave site, laying wreaths and 
flowers upon it during an annual tomb-sweeping day and marking it with a 
wooden cross.

The Chinese government learned of the site through a 2003 newspaper story 
and notified the U.S. Embassy. DNA testing confirmed that Upchurch was the 
honored pilot.

The news came too late for Upchurch's 10 brothers and sisters, who had long 
wondered about their brother's fate. The last of his siblings died in 2004, 
but nieces and nephews believe their parents helped bring their brother home.

"They've all had to have had a hand in this," said Dale Upchurch, Hoyle's 
great-nephew.

The funeral brought together at least three generations of Upchurches. Some 
of the siblings had moved to California while others stayed in North Carolina. 
Cousins were meeting for the first time, wearing nametags to identify them as 
one sibling's daughter, or another's grandson.

They packed the small High Falls United Methodist Church as a steady rain 
fell outside, joining in strains of "America the Beautiful" and prayers for 
the relative that most of them never met. Local folks peered through the 
crowded church's long windows from seating outside.

Jody Gollan read from letters that Hoyle sent to his sister, Elma, her 
grandmother.

"If I am shipped across as a pilot or gunner," he wrote from San Antonio in 
1943, "I figure I won't live six months after I get there."

After the service, a small box holding Upchurch's remains was taken to the 
cemetery behind the church.

Jia Xiudong, counselor at the Chinese embassy in Washington, spoke next to 
the grave, calling Upchurch a "hero." He said China was grateful for the 
sacrifices of all Americans who battled Japanese invaders in China.

"It's my honor to be here," he said. "The Chinese people remember these heroes 
and never forget what they gave. ... They devoted their lives to the peace 
we now enjoy."

The Upchurches returned the thanks.

"What they gave him, we'll never forget," said niece Barbara Rowland, who 
came from Huntington Beach, Calif., to attend the service.

Upchurch was buried with full military honors. The clear notes of taps segued 
into the peal of church bells. Then, the rumble of planes began.

Four A-10 Thunderbolts shot above the trees and over the cemetery. One left 
the formation and raced toward the clouds -- alone.

Two new lines have been added to Hoyle Upchurch's tombstone. They read:

Home at last

April 8, 2006

______________________________________________________________________

Copyright. All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by
News & Observer - Sunday, April 9, 2006
______________________________________________________________________