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Because he's having to pay for the trips himself, it will be a while before he can check them all. He has talked with the government about funding his expeditions, but to no avail.

The military thinks about 430 U.S. planes are missing in the areas where Kuhles has been searching. The missing include more than 100 in India, about 100 in Burma, now called Myanmar, and more than 170 in China, said Troy Kitch, spokesman for the Joint POW/ MIA Accounting Command.

There also are British, Canadian and Chinese aircraft missing along that route, too.

The missing troops in Burma are probably out of bounds until the totalitarian regime there ends, and Kitch's unit has recovered only a handful of remains in China and none in India.

The Hump in a fog

U.S. air crews flying The Hump were sometimes attacked by Japanese fighters, but their toughest foes were the mountains and weather. In summer, monsoon rains made the mountains hard to see. In winter, fierce storms and heavy icing knocked planes out of the sky.

It was that winter weather the crew of "Hot as Hell" must have been pondering as it boarded the boxy bomber on Jan. 25, 1944, at their base in Kunming, China.

While most planes that flew The Hump were transport aircraft moving supplies to bolster the Chinese military, "Hot as Hell" was a bomber. Like the others in its unit, said Gary Zaetz, the crew had to ferry in its own bombs and other supplies. It took about three trips over The Hump to supply each combat run.

First Lt. Irwin Zaetz, 26, had already flown a host of harrowing combat missions and had earned the Distinguished Flying Cross. It was just chance, though, that he was flying on this mission.

His regular plane was another B-24, "Chug-a-Lug Junior," but for some reason he was asked to fill in on "Hot as Hell." His family isn't sure why. According to different sources, the plane's regular navigator was either late or sick.

Zaetz, a star athlete in three sports at Burlington High School in Burlington, Vt., had earned the nickname "Zipper" because of the way he moved up and down the basketball court. A sharp dresser, he had always been careful to act the gentleman, to say and do the right things, even in high school, said Larry Zaetz, who idolized his athletic sibling and attended not just his games but even his practices.

Irwin Zaetz had been married for less than two years to his high school sweetheart, Ethel. The other crew members were single, Gary Zaetz said, but two were engaged, including one of the gunners, Hinson of Greensboro.

There was reportedly thick fog that day over part of the route, almost down to ground level, said Zaetz, who has scoured federal archives and practically every other available record for information about his uncle and the crash.

It was one of those days that The Hump lived up to its deadly reputation. Five planes flew the same route that day, Zaetz said, and all five crashed. Some crew members on three of the planes survived, but those on "Hot as Hell" and another plane vanished.

India to allow recovery

In January, during a regular meeting in Washington between officials from the United States and India, the Indians agreed to host American recovery teams for the first time.

Next month, the commanding general of Kitch's unit will travel to India to negotiate the details of the first recovery efforts there.

And among the first six wrecks to be officially investigated, Greer said -- all of them found by Kuhles -- will be "Hot as Hell."

Still, there are enough wreck sites to keep Kuhles busy for several lifetimes, and Zaetz said his battle isn't over, either, because the Pentagon has said it will probably be 2009 before it can send its first mission to India. First would come a small group to assess the site, and only afterwards could a recovery mission be scheduled.

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