We received some exciting news last week. Sam’s Uncle, his namesake Samuel E. Lunday Jr., has been missing in action since April 24, 1943 when his plane went down over the Burma Hump. He was the co-pilot and only a 2nd Lieutenant at the time.
Amazingly, the Air Force found the wreckage recently, identified the remains and all the men on the plane are coming home after 68 years!
To the Lunday Family:
A few years ago, when in Manila, I visited the American Cemetery outside of the city. My purpose was to see if the name of Samuel Lunday Jr was on the monument there which listed the MIA’s from the Pacific theatre in WW II. It was, and I obtained a rubbing of the text. Now that my wife and I are in our 80s, we are downsizing. The Creighton family and the Lunday family were stationed together at Pope Field 1938-1941. Can anyone advise me on whom I might send the rubbing to? And, I am amazed and delighted that Lt. Lunday has been found. He was a great individual.
Neal Creighton, Major General (USA-Ret)
Dear Lunday family,
so happy to hear about your loved one returning home! my uncle Cpl. Hal E. Roberts was also killed in a plane crash while “flying the Hump”. Mr. Kuhles also located the missing plane and identified the crash site. He does great work, for all of us who have family still missing after 60+ years. He gave the info to JPAC. We have been following his work since that time. It is great to see families receiving some closure after all these years.
Thank you to Mr. Kuhles!!!
Samuel E. Lunday, Sr. (the Colonel) was my step grandfather, married to my grandmother and living in Sycamore, Georgia until his death in 1992. His son, Samuel E. Lunday, Jr. was a friend of both my mother and my uncle who knew him in school many years before my grandmother and the Colonel got married. An oil portrait of Sam, Jr. hung in this house I now live in until late in life my grandfather passed it to Mildred when she and “Squirrel” stopped by one day. The loss of his son and especially the MIA and not knowing weighed heavy on my grandfather until the day he died and when I first learned from Mr. Kuhles several years ago about the plane being found I even felt relief and some consolation even though Sam, Jr. died before I was born. Mr. Kuhles is an amazing man and there is a wonderful documentary about his journey in finding not only this but other planes and crews long forgotten by our government. The sacrifices of men like both Sam and Sam, Jr. write a unique period of our nations history and the dedication of its soldiers continues unprecedented in modern history. Best wishes to the Lundays living in paradise.
Happy for your family, getting closure. Bravo to the MIA researchers, and esp. Clayton Kuhles!
Dear Laura and Samuel,
As a nephew of a United States Army Air Force B-24 navigator, 2nd Lt. Irwin Zaetz, who perished in the China-Burma-India theater during World War II, I share in your joy over the impending return of the remains of Samuel’s uncle, 2nd Lt. Samuel E. Lunday, Jr., 77th Squadron, 22nd Ferry Group, Air Transport Command. Clayton Kuhles found the crash site of my uncle on December 7, 2006 in the remote northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, the same state where he found the crash site of Samuel’s uncle in 2003. I echo Bruce Fenstermaker’s remarks above: it is indeed unfortunate that when the Defense Department announced last month the identification of your uncle’s crewmate, PFC Mervyn E. Sims, it chose to minimize Clayton’s discovery of the crash site and his recovery of the crew’s remains by not even mentioning his name (see http://fortyandeightgrandeduindiana.org/News/Program%20News/POW-MIA%20Monthly%20Report%20from%20Directeur%2042011.pdf).
Regards,
Gary Zaetz
Nephew of 1st Lt. Irwin Zaetz, 425th Bomb Squadron, 308th Bomb Group, 14th Air Force (navigator of the B-24 42-73308, lost in Arunachal Pradesh, India on January 25, 1944).
124 Long Shadow Lane
Cary, NC 27518
Telephone: (919) 851-2242
email: garyngina@live.com
Dear Lunday family,
I found and identified the C-87 of Lt. Lunday on Oct 19, 2003. I found human remains at the crashsite, which were then delivered to the US Embassy in Rangoon, Burma. Please visit my website to view my site report and photos from the crashsite. I also made a video of the crashsite and of the lengthy and arduous trek to reach this remote mountainous area. I recently attended the funeral of Pfc. Mervyn Sims of this aircraft. His service was held in Petaluma, CA.
Sincerely,
Clayton Kuhles
http://www.MIArecoveries.org
That’s an awesome story!
Dear Lunday Family,
I am happy for you and your recovered lost Airman. I should note that the US Government does not research or seek out missing in action US Military personel from WWII without, in this case, the self funded research and crash survey done by an Arizonian Clayton Kuhles. Very rarely does JPAC/DPMO give acknowledgement to the selfless Non Government sponsored MIA researchers, who I have had the honor of meeting.
Bruce Fenstermaker
“Bringing Them Home”
I reached the crashsite of Lt. Lunday’s long-missing C-87 aircraft on Oct 19, 2003. The crewmember remains which I recovered from the site were delivered to the US Embassy in Rangoon, Burma, and then transported back to the US for DNA matching. My site report and some photos from this crashsite can be viewed on my website: http://www.MIArecoveries.org Please scroll to C-87 #41-23696.
Clayton Kuhles