In the heat of Sino-Japanese War, Lee Chia-Ho (李嘉禾 西南聯大物理系二年級) was one of numerous students who volunteered for the armed forces. In 1943 Chia-Ho was accepted by the the Chinese Air Force Academy, his 16th class received their basic training at Lahore air field, India, followed by the advanced training in the US. Months before his TB-25D bomber (s/n 41-29867) crashed on Oct 1, 1944, he survived in an AT-6C trainer (s/n 42-43998) class 3 accident at Luke airbase on Feb 25. Sadly, eight out of the nine crewmen were killed in the B-25 after the bomber took off at 22:46 Sep 30 from Atlanta to Will Rogers, Oklahoma, for a cross field training. In the fatal accident during a storming night, besides the five USAAF staff, all three CAF sub lieutenant co-pilots also perished, including Chia-Ho. Except for a simple Death Notification in the end of 1944, the Lee family in Kunming, Yunnan, learned no details about their missing son in the States, until 2012.
In addition to be the interment location for American servicemen, in 1944 the Chinese government chose Fort Bliss National Cemetery, Texas, as the final resting place for 55 Republic of China Air Force crewmen who died while training at the different USAAF air fields. From 1942 to 1945, a total of 3,553 CAF trainees, including 866 pilots, had been assigned to Luke, Williams, and Thunderbird fields in Arizona for air training. After the trainees received their wings, the fighter pilots were assigned to Luke, while the bomber crew were transferred to La Junta field, Colorado, for tactical upgrade. Once their education was completed, all qualified crewmen would get their baptism of fire under the 1st BG, 3rd FG, and 5th FG of the Chinese-American Composite Wing.
Among thousands of the training accidents (1,192 in the month of October 1944 alone), at least 60 CAF officers were killed in fatal crashes, 55 of these casualties were buried in Ft. Bliss during the period of 1942-47, without proper notice to their families in China until seven decades later. The 12th class were the early trainees in the States, it had five warrant officers killed when flying P-39D/F Airacobra in Apr-Jun 1942. After a lengthy archeology-like archive study, eventually the Lees found Chia-Ho at his commemorated site in Jan 2012. Followed by this collective effort, some descendants of the fell eagles got together in a traditional Chinese ceremony at the Ft. Bliss resting place in Oct 2018. Up to this blog time, a descendants search is still a on going effort.
