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In 2011, Professional Adventurer Clayton Kuhles discovered wreckage near the India/Myanmar border. Kuhles found a set of dog tags and believes the site was where local Capt. John “Blackie” Porter’s plane, shown above, went down in 1943. (Photo submitted)

After receiving more than $70,000 to recover remains of two local airmen, a professional adventurer ditched his team, returning later with a satchel to find a warrant and federal agents waiting

“Where is Blackie Porter?”

For more than 70 years, that’s been the question surrounding a well-known Union County hero from World War II.

And for a time, it seemed like that mystery had been solved. But now, a new question has risen — Was the community the victim of a scam?

“Clayton has some explaining to do,” said J.R. Rausch, a current Marysville Council member and former mayor who helped spearhead the fundraising effort to bring Porter home. “Where did the money go? How was it spent?… What did he do?”

“Clayton” is Clayton Kuhles, a self-described professional adventurer, hired to bring back the remains of Porter, a Marysville native. Porter, a former stunt pilot who studied aviation at The Ohio State University, was the leader of “Blackie’s Gang,” a team he established to search for and rescue military personnel lost or shot down over the dangerous eastern Himalayan U.S. supply air route known as “The Hump,” as well as other areas in the Pacific theater, during World War II. Part of Blackie’s Gang was another Marysville man, Sgt. Harold Neibler, who served as Porter’s flight engineer.

On Dec. 10, 1943, Japanese fighter pilots attacked Porter’s plane, shooting it down as it flew a rescue mission. Porter, Neibler and three others died in the crash. Only co-pilot, Lt. James Spain, who was pushed out of the plane by Porter, survived.

Last year, local officials and community members raised more than $70,000 for Kuhles and a team of experts to go to a crash site near the India/Myanmar border and recover Porter’s remains, as well as the remains of the four other U.S. airmen believed to have died with Porter.

Finding and funding

Kuhles says he actually found the crash site in 2011 as he was researching another crash site in the region and learned of a nearby crash site. At that site, Kuhles says he discovered the wreckage of a B-25 and found a set of dog tags belonging to Sgt. Harry D. Tucker, a crewman on Porter’s plane. At the time, he reported seeing no human remains.

Kuhles began researching the plane and its occupants, eventually connecting with Ellen Vinson, the daughter of Porter’s widow. Vinson knew of her mother’s first husband and had been trying to have the remains recovered through official government channels. The federal government does have a department tasked with identifying and recovering the remains of soldiers around the world. Officials from that organization, however, have said that due to the location and age of the crash, Porter and his men are not likely to be targeted by the government for recovery.

Eventually Vinson agreed to help fund a recovery effort, led by Kuhles, who said he would go to the site and bring Porter’s remains home.

“I’ve done a number of these recoveries and this is the first time the families have been willing to fund this privately,” Kuhles said in May of 2019. “So, we’re in the process of doing that. We think we can get at least $20-25,000 and go from there.”

Over the next months, interest in the recovery effort increased, as did the price tag.

By August, Kuhles said the effort would cost at least $70,000 so he could take forensic anthropologist Dr. Cheryl Johnston from The Ohio State University, archaeologist John Schweikart from the Ohio State Historic Preservation Office, medic Matt Misicka and others with him. He said to meet his time schedule, the money would need raised by Nov. 1. Kuhles said he could go by himself and hire locals for far less money. With additional money, the team could take a cadaver dog and handler.

At that time, Kuhles said he would leave Nov. 1, and be joined by Johnston and Schweikart in December, after OSU finals.

Rausch and others began an aggressive campaign to raise the money as quickly as possible. The effort included visits to civic organizations, speeches at public events, pleas at council meetings, news coverage, and even a radio-thon.

On Oct. 26, Kuhles emailed team members telling them they were good to go on the trip, provided he got all the money. The next day, Kuhles learned that a final, furious push got the campaign past his goal, raising a total of $73,000. All of the money was raised from private individuals or organizations. No city money was used as part of the project.

“The story went sideways”

Rausch wired the money to Kuhles on Oct. 31 and that’s when as he said, “the story went sideways.”

“Clayton left Nov. 4 and took another American named Bill with him without communicating with the Ohio team after October 26,” Vinson wrote in an e-mail to the Journal-Tribune. “Bill apparently helped him for a short time and left to meet his wife in Calcutta. He doesn’t appear in any videos. I have no idea who he is.”

After Kuhles left, other team members learned there were no plane tickets, reservations or travel instructions made for them.

“He let us do all the fundraising and strung them along,” Rausch said. “It became apparent to me that he had no intention of taking John (Schweikart) and Cheryl (Johnston). As soon as he got into country, we couldn’t get ahold of him.”

Kuhles said it was always up to the team members to make their schedule fit his itinerary.

“They had to be disqualified as potential team members because they stated they wouldn’t be traveling to India until sometime in December, and furthermore, they objected to me starting any site excavation work prior to their arrival on-site,” Kuhles wrote in a letter to Rausch and Vinson.

He said that with their schedule, he would not have been able to get to the crash site and return before the dangerous winter season.

“This created an unworkable and unacceptable logistics complication for me, because it would have meant the recovery mission could not have been completed before the end of 2019,” Kuhles wrote.

At the site

Even so, Kuhles used the entire $70,000. Kuhles wrote that he arrived in India and hired several local workers and purchased tools, equipment, bulk foodstuffs and other supplies needed for the two-month recovery effort.

He said he and his team hiked for days, “slogging through deep mud and jungle and clambering over slippery river rocks” to get to the crash site which was 9,007 feet up.

“We excavated the entire crash site, including under and around the few pieces of wreckage found outside of the ravine,” Kuhles wrote.

The report added that, “The team also recovered some personal artifacts, as well as some smaller pieces of wreckage that could be displayed in an exhibit.”

Kuhles sent Rausch and Vinson pictures and a video of the site and the excavation effort.

Rausch says Kuhles claims he used an Indian archaeologist at the site, but “I didn’t see that on the video.”

He said what he did see didn’t look like an appropriate archaeological site. He said the workers were not wearing gloves and “they were just kind of moving things and throwing things.”

“I don’t think he was running things the way they (the U.S.-based archaeologist and anthropologist) would have done it,” Rausch said.

Vinson said she was also skeptical of what she saw on the pictures and video.

A hero’s return?

At some point in December, Kuhles apparently left the site to explore at least one other crash.

He said he left Porter’s crash site Dec. 30 and returned to the U.S. in mid-January with his findings.

“We believe there are remains. We don’t know if they are animal remains, or U.S. serviceman or Indian,” Rausch said.

Before leaving on his recovery effort, Kuhles said any remains would be given to the Indian government for review, then turned over to the U.S. Embassy in India.

“That’s not what happened,” Rausch said. “I honestly don’t know if he went through the Indian government. I don’t even know if he even got the permits.”

Instead, Kuhles loaded the artifacts, including the recovered remains, into his backpack.

“The proper way to bring remains back, of a U.S. serviceman, is in a flag-draped coffin, not in a bag on a commercial flight,” Rausch said.

When Kuhles arrived at the Los Angeles airport, he was met by a complaint from those OSU officials he left behind, a variety of federal agents and a warrant to seize the bag of remains.

Kuhles was also detained at the airport for several hours before being released. The remains, however, have not been released. For now, they are apparently inside a locker at the airport while officials investigate Kuhles, his claims and his methods.

“He may have committed several crimes, U.S. or Indian,” Rausch said.

Agent Francisco Jiménez with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Agent Jamie Ruiz with U.S. Customs and Border Protection each declined to comment, but confirmed their agencies, both part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, are working on the investigation.

Schweikart said because of the ongoing federal investigation, “I am not at liberty to comment.” He confirmed that he and officials from The Ohio State University have been working with the FBI as part of that federal investigation.

Once the investigation is complete, the bag could be sent to Hawaii to determine if it contains human remains, and if so, who those remains belong to. Rausch says he believes the notoriety of the recovery could actually speed along the usually lengthy identification process.

An explanation without regret

Vinson said Kuhles owes her and other investors an explanation. She said many donors contributed “specifically” because the archaeologist and anthropologist from The Ohio State University added a level of credibility to the expedition.

Kuhles said he never promised that anyone, other than himself, would go on the trip.

“I apologize if I didn’t realize how important it was to some donors that John and Cheryl be included on my team, but no donors attached any conditions or stipulations to their funding donation,” Kuhles wrote. “They should have clearly stated their wishes in a written format for my review.”

He said he would have, “promptly declined and returned any funding donation that had any conditions or stipulations attached, regardless of who the donor was or the amount of their donation.”

“I also told Ellen that there would be no guarantees, but my team and I would do the absolute very best job possible,” Kuhles wrote in an email to Rausch. “I’m convinced no organization, governmental or NGO, could have done a more thorough excavation of the crash site.”

On Jan. 20, Kuhles did tell Rausch and Vinson that if they, or anyone wanted their money back, they had until the end of the month to notify him in writing.

Vinson said she tried several times to contact Kuhles by phone, but, “He’s not returning mine and he knows I am more sympathetic towards him than anyone.

Rausch said Kuhles has reached out to him several times, but federal authorities have given him some advice.

“Their recommendation was not to respond,” Rausch said.

Attempts by the Journal-Tribune to contact Kuhles were unsuccessful.

Moving forward

Vinson said that while she would like to “wring his neck,” she still considers Kuhles her “only hope” at getting Porter’s remains.

“I think Clayton is still a hero,” Vinson said. “I just wish he hadn’t done it the way he did it.”

Vinson and local officials are hopeful that when the remains are examined, they will belong to Porter and his crew mates.

“If they are the remains of our servicemen, then in my mind, he has fulfilled his obligation to us,” Rausch said.

Beyond that, if Kuhles squandered the money, if he is banned from future rescues or even if he goes to prison, “I don’t really care what happens to him.”

So what do Rausch and Vinson care about? Basically, they want to give local war heroes a proper military burial. They hope Porter can be buried in Marysville’s Oakdale Cemetery, along with his parents and brother, George.

“I just really hope we have got our five servicemen and we can have our ceremony,” Rausch said.

Timeline of a recovery gone “sideways”

•Dec. 10, 1943: John “Blackie” Porter II and Harold Neibler, both MHS graduates, are killed when their plane is attacked by Japanese and crashes on the India/Berma border during World War II.

•Nov. 9, 2011: Clayton Kuhles finds the crash site for Porter and Neibler

•Late 2011: Kuhles first contacts Ellen Vinson, the daughter of Porter’s widow, about finding the crash site.

•January 2018: Vinson begins writing to her congressman to secure the rights to Porter’s remains.

•May 2019: Kuhles announces he will go on recovery mission with price tag of about $25,000.

•August 2019: Kuhles expands his recovery team and price tag, to at least $70,000. Team members say Kuhles will leave in November and they will join him at the conclusion of Ohio State University’s fall semester.

•Oct. 26, 2019: Kuhles tells team members they are ready to go, provided he gets the full $70,000.

•Oct. 27, 2019: Fundraising organizers tell Kuhles that $73,000 has been raised for the recovery effort.

•Oct. 31, 2019: Money is wired to Kuhles.

•Nov. 4, 2019: Kuhles and another man leave for crash site without team.

•Early November: Other team members learn there are no plane tickets or travel arrangements for them.

•Mid-November 2019: Kuhles hikes to crash site and begins recovery with hired workers.

•Dec. 30, 2019: Kuhles reports leaving Porter’s crash site.

•Jan. 11, 2020: Kuhles files final Crashed Aircraft Recovery Report.

•Mid-January 2020: Kuhles arrives at Los Angeles airport and is detained. The remains and artifacts he is returning with are confiscated.







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