Another: Frozen remains of WWII airman found

[Hondo]

It leaves me wondering how many more there might be left up there, Finally home, R.I.P.


Frozen remains of WWII airman found in Kings Canyon National Park

The frozen remains of a missing World War II airman have been discovered on a remote glacier in Kings Canyon National Park, not far from the spot where the body of his apparent crewmate was discovered in 2005, it was announced Monday.

A hiker discovered the remains on Wednesday at 12,300 feet near Mount Darwin in the park. The remains, which were accompanied by a World War II-era uniform and parachute, were being taken Monday to the Fresno County coroner's office.

Because of the low temperature at the recovery site on the Mendel Glacier, the remains included skin, hair and soft tissue, according to Army Maj. Brian DeSantis of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hawaii. The command will work to identify the body once the coroner releases it to the military.

"This body was found 100 feet from where the last one was found," DeSantis said. "We're hopeful it's from the same incident."

On Oct. 16, 2005, an ice climber found the body of a man later identified as Leo Mustonen, 22, one of four fliers aboard an Army Air Corps AT-7 plane that took off from Mather Air Force Base on Nov. 18, 1942, on a training flight and was never heard from again. The plane was believed to have crashed in a blizzard.

After Mustonen's body was found, searchers scoured the area, looking for other remains, but were hampered by the thick snowpack.

This summer, however, the snowpack at the site was about one-third of normal, DeSantis said.

"Basically, the snow and ice receded enough for the remains to become exposed," he said.

DeSantis said a military forensic anthropologist is on his way to Fresno to assist authorities in identifying the remains.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/21/BAJ9RM8PH.DTL

 

[Fletch]

Wow.

Article on Leo Mustonen remains recoveryCadet Mustonen, from Brainerd, MN, and (2 of?) the others were navigator trainees (one assumes an instructor-pilot was aboard).
The AT-7 was a Twin Beech used in nav school (called AT-11 in bomb/gunnery schools, C-45 as AAF transport, JRB as Naval transport and SNB as Naval trainer - good grief!).

 

[dhermann1]

They didn't like to give out figures for casualties in training accidents, but it was huge. I had a coworker who flew B-24's during the war and he said he saw at least three crews perish before they ever left the country.

 

[Story]

More non-combat casualties

The Millville (NJ) airfield museum (P-47 training field during WWII) has a memorial for two P-40 pilots that died during take-offs/landings in 1942 while assigned the C.A.P. mission for Philadelphia.

 

[Natty Bumpo]

Just WOW...

May there be a hero's homecoming for the family. It's never too late to honor these vets for their service to our nation.

 

[Hondo]

Old coin, DNA may help ID airman

Old coin, DNA may help ID airman

A 1923 buffalo nickel, an old Army uniform and a crumbly wallet with faded photographs might help investigators figure out exactly which missing World War II airman's remains are lying in the county morgue in Fresno.

But it will probably come down to something more modern and foolproof -- DNA matching.

The remains of what is believed to be the second of four crewmen who died on a 1942 training flight were found by hikers last week on a remote Sierra mountainside in Kings Canyon National Park. The body was brought by helicopter and coroner's van to the morgue Monday.

Fresno County coroner Dr. David Hadden will conduct an autopsy in conjunction with an Army anthropologist and specialist in identifying remains of missing military personnel.

Hadden said today that the remains consist of the body from the waist up, along with skin, hair and teeth. The skeleton appears to be intact.

"Considering the remains been in the ice for a large number of years in a glacier full of rocks, and involved in an aircraft accident, they're in fairly good shape,'' he said.

A coroner's deputy took a quick peek inside the wallet, to see if there might be identification. All she found were faded photographs, the images not recognizable, Hadden said. Deputies also found the nickel and an 87-year-old dime.

A park ranger said the body was found with a wool sweater, a white shirt collar and a ring.

In most cases the recovered teeth would provide a valuable clue, but the four airmen did not have dental records that investigators could use to make a match, according to the coroner.

The remains were found less than 100 feet from where climbers found the ice-covered body of airman Leo Mustonen in 2005.

Mustonen was one of four men aboard the AT-7 navigational plane that disappeared in a blizzard Nov. 18, 1942, after taking off from Mather Air Force Base near Sacramento on an Army Air Force training flight. The others were pilot William Gamber, 23, of Fayette, Ohio, and cadets John Mortenson, 25, of Moscow, Idaho, and Ernest Munn, 23, of St. Clairsville, Ohio.

It will take as long as two months to compare the DNA from the remains to that of relatives of the three missing crew members. That effort will be hastened because the relatives' DNA is already on file from the 2005 investigation.

Although it's likely that the remains are from the 1942 crash, investigators cannot make wholesale assumptions -- there have been other Sierra plane crashes and many other missing people, Hadden said.

Examining decades-old remains pose extraordinary challenges to coroners, Hadden said.

"It's different when a 50-year-old body pops out of a glacier,'' he said. "It's more difficult, because things aren't laid out as clearly.''

A hiker found the remains Wednesday at the 12,000-foot level. It took several days for the hiker to contact rangers and for rangers to return to the area to verify the account and arrange for the removal by helicopter.

A smaller than normal snowpack caused the remains to become exposed to view. Rangers had scoured the area two years ago, after Mustonen's body was found, but the latest remains were apparently covered by snow and ice at the time.

The four fliers received a military funeral at Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno after the crash. But even now, Hadden said, identifying the body could help the airmen's relatives.

"It's part of the process of bringing closure,'' he said. "But it happened so long ago that there aren't a lot of relatives left.''

Military officials told the missing men's relatives of the find Monday, according to the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command in Hawaii.

Jeanne Pyle, of St. Clairsville, Ohio, , the 87-year-old sister of Munn, told the Associated Press that she was hopeful after hearing about the latest discovery in the Sierra.

"We hope this turns out to be him,'' she said. "But you never know."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/21/BAG4URMITA9.DTL&tsp=1