A long-lost American pilot will finally be laid to rest Saturday, April 8, in High Falls. Second Lt. Robert Hoyle Upchurch, flying his P40 -N-20 on his first mission with the famed “Flying Tigers” of the 23rd Fighter Group, 74th Squadron, disappeared into the mists of China on Oct. 6, 1944. As his cremated remains are interred in the little cemetery outside High Falls United Methodist Church, jets from Pope Air Force Base — now home to the Flying Tigers — will streak overhead in a “missing man” formation to honor one of their own.
Some time later, the haunting drone of one of the last of the World War II P-40 fighters will echo down the banks of Deep River, as Jerry Yeagan pilots his restored aircraft overhead in a final tribute to the lost airman.
For years, the family knew only that Upchurch had been lost, like many, in the midst of furious fighting against Japanese invaders of China over the mountainous terrain on The Burma Front. Six months after he went missing, his mother had written seeking to find out whatever she could about her son and what hope there might be for his survival. Chaplain Albert Buckley answer-ed, in sad detail. “I am going to recount the mission of Oct. 6, and thus give you all the information we have,” he wrote. “Your son, with a number of other pilots, took off from their base on a strafing mission to the Hengyang, Lingling area. They completed the mission and landed at Linchow to refuel. They then departed from there to their home base.” Members of the group had to thread their way through rough country, and the weather closed in. “En route, they encountered bad weather, and your son was last sighted about 100 miles west of Kanchow, China, climbing through the overcast but dangerously close to the mountains,” Buckley wrote. The rest of the flight turned back and sought a different route, according to the official search report. “Sometime later we received a report from the Chinese net that a plane crashed and burned at Shangpaow (90 miles west of Kanchow),” Buckley wrote, saying that he could not encourage any reasonable hope that Hoyle Upchurch survived — though nothing was certain.
“No identification of the pilot or plane was possible,” he wrote. “Since there was no means of identification, we cannot be absolutely sure it was Bob and thus his status remains ‘missing in action.’ It is a difficult task for me to write this, because I realize it just about reduces to a minimum any hope you have for your son’s return, but I cannot bear to see you enduring the future months, yes, and even years in constant expectation of some favorable report.” The chaplain did his best to offer words of comfort to a mother in High Falls. “Be assured that Bob was ready to meet his Divine Master if Almighty God saw fit to take him from this vale of tears,” he wrote. “If I can be of any further service, please feel free to write to me.”
Some 60 years later, last May, remains of an American pilot were discovered in a Chinese cemetery. The unknown pilot had been buried with full honors beneath a cross whose Chinese characters identified him only as “American pilot.” Villagers, hearing of the crash, had trekked over mountain paths to bring back the body for a funeral and burial. One 79-year-old man remembered it all, though he had been a boy at the time.
They revered the grave, which was at the foot of a Ming dynasty tower. They tended it and visited it. In May, a team of scientists excavated that grave to take the remains to Hawaii for identification. DNA tests using samples contributed by three Upchurch relatives confirmed Upchurch’s identity.
It brought to a close the long wait — one shared by family who never even met Upchurch.
“As one of the youngest Upchurch nieces and nephews, I never knew Uncle Hoyle but loved him and missed him just the same,” Dale Upchurch said. “I never thought the mystery of his disappearance would ever be solved.” His own son and son-in-law are in wartime military service.
“My wife, Sue, and I have a son-in-law, Heath, who has been in Baghdad, Afghanistan, and South Korea over the past four years,” he said. “Our Son, Dale Jr., has been stationed on the Kitty Hawk in Japan for two years patrolling countries like China, Korea, and Russia.”
The family legend of the missing pilot intensifies his normal concern as a father.
“When we don’t hear from our kids by e-mail or phone, after a couple of weeks we get antsy and apprehensive,” he said. “As a nephew to this hero and a father to my other hero, I want to help provide a network for all family members to reunite, bond, and honor our parents, family, and Uncle Hoyle.”
On Wednesday, April 5, Upchurch family members will be waiting at the Raleigh Durham International Airport for the return of Hoyle Upchurch. A military officer will deliver his urn to representatives from Powell Funeral Home.
And the following Saturday, his long journey will end.
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