IN MEMORY OF A MAN WHOSE LIFE WAS CUT SHORT BY FATE

Al was devastated by the death of his bride, Cathlyn Schabel Thorwaldson, on 2-22-44 during the birth of their first baby, Kurt. Al was colorblind so he could not enlist in the armed forces but he was an excellent pilot who was an instructor in Visalia California for years.

He went to work for the China National Aviation Corporation in late 1944, leaving baby Kurt with his sister, Margaret Thorwaldson Shafer, with the agreement that if Al did not return Margaret would adopt Kurt.

Al’s aircraft went out of control on January 14, 1945, turning left and crashing into the mountain at the side of the Burma Road. Here are some comments about that time in history. First screens from CNAC.ORG posted by Tom Moore.

Below post shows Al was using Margaret’s home address as his. This is the home where Kurt was raised from a baby to an adult.

I am compelled to insert this picture of Arch Shafer and me taken in about 1949. The car is a new 1949 Ford coupe that dad was very proud to own.

Below is a note sent to Tom Moore by Kurt in 2001 when Kurt was under the impression that Al’s crash was due to enemy fire. That was not correct. Kurt later hired a medium to converse with Al. Al told the medium that the cause of his crash was a defect in his airplane that was not detectable in the preflight tests Al ran on the plane.

During that conversation Al showed the medium a bottle of Aquavit liqueur. The importance of that was that Kurt had bought a drink of Aquavit while on a late flight from Copenhagen to Seattle in the late 70s. Al wanted Kurt to know he was on that flight with Kurt.

Below is a page I posted years ago about Al and my experience flying from Copenhagen to Seattle.

My father, Al Thorwaldson, was an avid pilot – an interest that would, unfortunately, lead to his death. Why? Because after his bride, my mother, Cathlyn Schabel Thorwaldson, passed when giving birth to me, Al decided to go to work for the China National Aviation Company (CNAC) to fly a DC3 over the Burma road to drop rice to the workers building the road.

Below is a picture of the aircraft signed by three of his good buddies who flew with him in 1945. Al was on a drop on January 14, 1945 when his military DC3 failed and forced the aircraft into an uncontrollable left bank, flying right into the side of the canyon the road was in. He died instantly but by some miracle the Chinaman in the back who was pushing rice out the back door lived through the crash.

Jim Dalby was flying right behind Al that day and he later met with me and told me about his flight. But he was so busy flying his plane he did not see Al’s crash.

In about 2010 I visited a medium in Orange County to talk to Al. I wanted to know more about his crash and whether his aircraft had been hit by Japanese gunfire. He told me (through the medium) that the aircraft had a failure that was not possible to detect in his preflight tests. He also showed the medium a bottle of Akvavit, a Norwegian liqueur that is delicious. The reason he showed that was to tell me that he was with me as I flew from Sweden to the US after visiting Stockholm. On that flight I was sitting at the left side window looking down over a moonlit panorama of ocean and islands. I had a Danish beer and a shot of Akvavit and I was crying over the beauty of it all. (and over the exhaustion I felt after 2 weeks traveling in London, Copenhagen, Germany and Sweden). So Al was showing me that he was right there at my side.

Below is the quote from the picture above by General Wedemeyer that tells us that it is likely Al went to work for CNAC so he could contribute to the war effort.

Here is the text from the picture above

A SALUTE TO AMERICAN AND CHINESE AIRMEN WHO FLEW THE “HUMP”

In the Spring of 1942, the military forces of Imperial Japan succeeded in severing the Burma Road, China’s last supply link to the Allied world. The situation was desperate, unless the Allies could continue to supply the Chinese with essential military provisions, it would just be a matter of time before China’s conventional military forces were overwhelmed by the invading Japanese. The only alternative was to airlift supplies directly to China from Allied supply depots in eastern India. However, to do so meant that American and Chinese airmen would have to fly heavily loaded transport planes, in numbers previously unimagined, over the world’s tallest and most unforgiving mountain range, the mighty Himalayas. Utilizing air routes that had been recently explored by pilots of the China National Aviation Corporation, and known as flying the “Hump”, airmen of the American Army Air Force and the China National Aviation Corporation would for the next three and a half years, maintain a constant supply of materials and hope to the beleaguered people of China.

In “Over the Top of the World” aviation artist Roy Grinnell has caught the moment that a China-bound Douglas C-47 Skytrain of the China National Aviation Corporation has just succeeded in transiting the most dangerous part of the “Hump” air route. The painting is dedicated to the courage, perseverance and sacrifice of American and Chinese airmen who flew the “Hump”.