Douglas Pickup never met his uncle. But his family had been searching for him his entire life.
Merle Pickup, nicknamed “Mose” by his family, was 25 when he joined the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1942 during World War II. His nephew Douglas was born in 1955, 11 years after his uncle’s plane went down in the Himalayas due to bad weather.
But on Thursday, Merle returned home for the first time in decades, after his remains were found in 2019 and later identified this summer by the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency — bringing an 80-year quest by the Pickup family to an end.
“My father and his sisters wanted so much for this to happen,” Douglas said. “It’s kind of a family legacy, that all these efforts by all these people to get the Army and get the Department of Defense to go back — and they did.”
Merle’s service
(Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency) U.S. Army Air Forces Cpl. Merle L. Pickup, 27, of Provo, Utah, was killed during World War II and accounted for on July 20, 2022.
Merle was born in 1917. The youngest of six children, he was doted on by his four older sisters and older brother, Clair Pickup. Clair was Douglas’ father — and only two years older than Merle.
Clair was drafted in 1941, and served for the duration of the war after the bombing of Pearl Harbor that December. While Clair served in North Africa and went on to Italy, his little brother Merle was drafted and sent to the Pacific theater.
“They were both serving; they were the only two sons in their family,” Douglas said. “So when [Merle’s] plane went missing in May of 1944, they pulled [my father] out and brought him back to Fort Knox, where he spent the remainder of the war as a training sergeant.”
Merle’s plane went down on a ferrying mission from China to Chabua, Assam, India. The aircraft was reported as missing when it never made it to its destination. Merle was 27.
The plane’s crash site sat on a northern-facing peak in the Himalayas, about 12,000 feet high, and required a six-day trip just to reach the mountain’s base camp, Douglas said. The American Graves Registration Service attempted to reach the reported crash site on two separate occasions in 1947, but they were unsuccessful and declared the remains of the crew nonrecoverable.
That’s where Merle’s remains rested until an Indian expedition company successfully recovered remains from the site in August 2019.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The remains of Provo airman U.S. Army Air Forces Cpl. Merle L. Pickup are finally accounted for as they arrive at Berg Mortuary in Provo on Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022. Pickup, 27, died in a plane crash over the Himalayas during World War II and was considered missing, but was finally found, identified and accounted for nearly 80 years later. His family never stopped looking for him.
“The sisters and my father, over the years — they talked about their brother all the time,” Douglas said. “My grandmother never really had closure, because she always thought, ‘Well, did he die in this crash? Or is he alive somewhere?’”
Douglas’ grandmother was so unsure of her youngest son’s death that she left him in her will up until the time of her death, since his body was never recovered. But she did have a marker installed in the Provo City Cemetery with his name inscribed, along with the words “Missing in China.”
“Over the years, my aunts and my dad, they wrote letters to the Army, to the Department of Defense, to the POW/MIA group, urging them to go back and see if they could find any any remains or find what actually happened to the man on the plane,” Douglas said.
“Most of my aunts up until they died, and my father — they still had hope that they’d someday go find him and find his remains,” Douglas continued. “When they died, I kept up on that.”
Finding Merle — and remembering him
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Army National Guardsman Specialist Kasey Gunnerson holds the folded flag as the remains of Provo airman U.S. Army Air Forces Cpl. Merle L. Pickup arrive at Berg Mortuary in Provo on Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022. Pickup, 27, died in a plane crash over the Himalayas during World War II and was considered missing, but was finally found, identified and accounted for nearly 80 years later. His family never stopped looking for him.
After Douglas took up the family quest, he would periodically meet with the Department of Defense about his uncle’s case. He also provided the department with a DNA sample from himself and his cousin.
“Our family has really stayed up on it — we knew about the crash site, we knew where he was at,” Douglas said. “My father and his sisters — they talked so much about him that they really kept him alive in our memories. Like I said something to my children who, this would be their great uncle, and they all knew about it.”
“Everybody in the family has really been aware of it, and keenly aware of this lost brother and nephew and son that they wanted someday to see if we could find him,” he continued. “It’s really been an 80-year quest for the family.”
When Douglas got the call from the Department of Defense confirming the remains they’d recovered were Merle’s, he also got a report about his uncle’s death — which had information the family had known for years, he said, like the specific location of the crash site.
Merle’s brothers, sisters and parents have all since passed away. But Douglas said they would be happy to know they continued to pursue Merle’s recovery.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” Douglas said of the call confirming Merle’s remains had been found. “It’s just kind of an emotional thing, to think that finally, after all these years as a family, he’s coming home.”
Merle’s remains arrived back in Utah on the afternoon of Dec. 15. His casket was escorted from the Salt Lake City International Airport’s tarmac by an Army honor guard.
He will be buried on Dec. 17 in Provo with his parents, alongside the memorial marker his mother had placed for him decades ago.
