Kohler was in Burma with the Indian Army at the same time the recently recovered aircraft went down, killing all onboard. Many times, he watched the deftly-piloted Dakotas come swooping in to deliver supplies to his fellow ground troops as they advanced toward the occupying Japanese Army.

"For the last 50 years, I have always been thankful to these guys who flew the old Dakotas in rough conditions beyond belief," he said.

It was under these conditions that young Kohler and his friend John MacArthur of the Gordon Highlanders, attached to the Indian Army, were machine-gunned one afternoon by a Japanese plane. MacArthur was killed and Kolher dug a hole and buried him in the jungle.

"I never heard anything more about him after that day," Kohler said.

Several weeks ago, Kolher was at a heritage conference in Summerside where he happened to run into some men from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The subject of his participation In the Indian Army in Burma came up, and they told him of the proposed expedition by the department to find the remains of the lost plane and its crew.

In turn, Kohler told them about his friend's death and unmarked burial.

Knowing the jungle region where the plane went down, he told them he didn't think they would ever be able to find the nrissing aircraft. TheVeterans Affairs people seemed positive, and also promised to try and locate Kohler's friend, MacArthur.

That, too, he thought was a hopeless cause. But, to his surpnse, two weeks ago, he received a letter from the Commonwealth Graves Commission telling him that his comrade had been located.

Somehow they had followed up my story and his grave was now in a cemetery outside Rangoon," said Kohler. The graves of the airmen recently found by the Veterans Affairs delegation will be located in the same place.

Kohler congratulated the commission for its successful mission. "I will always be thankful. to those airmen who gave their lives to fly in food and ammunition so that we in the Indian Army could do our job battling through the jungles of Burma."

From the Charlottetown Guardian, as written by Nancy Willis.

Copyright
Waldron H. Leard