Lasting Memories And Friendship

In March this year, 70-year-old Eve Coulson made the 4,700-km journey from New Jersey to California to visit her 109-year-old Chinese-born “uncle” Moon Fun Chin. As far as she knows, Chin is one of the few surviving pilots in the U.S. who flew “the Hump,” a trans-Himalayan air route for delivering supplies to China to fight against the Japanese invaders during World War II (WWII).

Another survivor is Peter J. Goutiere, who turned 108 on September 28 this year. He, along with Chin and Coulson’s father, Ursel Elbert Coulson, were pilots for the China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC). Coulson Sr., who flew 99 Hump trips, worked closely with Goutiere in China in the early 1940s. CNAC was a Sino-U.S joint venture established in 1929. Most of its pilots were foreigners and the majority of its co-pilots and radio operators were Chinese.

Flying the Hump

Japanese troops invaded the northeastern region of China on September 18, 1931, and launched a full-scale invasion of China in July 1937. By 1940, the Japanese had taken control of almost all