SEQUIM — Theo Sheen, a 91-year-old woman who lives in Sequim, finally received the call she had been awaiting for more than 60 years.
Last month, Sheen got a call from a stranger — Clayton Kuhles of Arizona — saying he had found her brother’s crashed airplane.
Her brother was Lt. Jerrold Owens, who was co-pilot in a World War II mission taking supplies from India to China, she said.
The report from the Army Air Corps said that the Pregnant Swan — the B-24D from the 308th Bomb Group — was flying over an area of the Himalayas called “The Hump” in bad weather about 66 years ago.
When the formation of planes emerged from the clouds, Owens’ plane and its nine men were gone.
The families of those aboard never knew what happened to their loved ones, said Jerry Stiles of Sequim, who is Owens’ and Sheen’s cousin.
“I remember the grief of the family when he went missing. We didn’t know if he was dead or maimed somewhere in a hospital with no memory,” he said.
“There was no information back then.
“Now, 66 years later, there is information, and there is closure.”
Stiles said that the family was concerned over whether Owens had suffered.
“Clayton said that either the plane had just crashed into the rock or had exploded in the air — either way it was an instant death for him,” Stiles said.
Sheen, who later joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots, said she was inspired after her brother disappeared.
To become a WASP, as they were called, she had to rack up training hours on her own time.
“I don’t know how many hours I had to have — but it was a lot,” she said.
“I had to drive all the way to Arizona from California where I was living because all the planes in California were grounded.”
In 1944, she qualified as a WASP, but by the time she was ready to join the service, the war was over, she said.
Sheen said she was relieved to have confirmation of what she had long suspected — that her brother had died.
“He joined the military the day after Pearl Harbor,” she said.
“I don’t know how old he was then, but he hadn’t graduated from high school too long before that.”
Upon finding out how many missing soldiers there are — about 78,000 from World War II alone — it became Kuhles’ obsession and hobby to search out lost planes.
He found his first plane in 2001 in Burma.
“I make it a priority to go on an expedition every year,” he said.
“It costs me about $10,000 to $15,000 out of my own pocket, but I do it to give the closure to these families.
“I always say it this way: If you were on one of these planes and crashing and knew you wouldn’t survive, wouldn’t you want to know that someone was going to go out and find you and tell your family?
“I would think most people would answer in the affirmative.”
During a trek to India, he was exploring the Northeastern state, called Arunachal Pradesh, and found seven airplanes, including the Pregnant Swan.
The plane was at an elevation of 3,000 feet en route to its scheduled destination, Kuhles said.
“What I believe was either they dropped down to look for some landmarks and then ended up too low,” he said.
“But more likely, they ran into a mechanical failure.
“Those airplanes were notorious for the fuel transfer lines exploding.
“So I believe they encountered a mechanical problem and that they would have died [in an explosion] before they even crashed.”
The other men on the plane were Major Robert Fensler, Lt. Phillip Huffman, Lt. Frederick Ossenfort, Lt. Harvey Nix, Sgt. Erle Thayer, Sgt. Aubrey Stevenson, Sgt. Norman Price, Sgt. Louis Verhagen and Sgt. Sandav Rivardo.
Kuhles said that the remains of those aboard were still near the plane but that the Department of Defense has a specialized forensics team who will return to identify and retrieve the bodies.
“Both Theo and I have given our DNA swabs so that they can match it,” Stiles said.
“But from what I understand, it could be up to seven years before we hear certain anything back.”
For more information on Kuhles, visit www.miarecoveries.org.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
