Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Seagoon on October 19, 2005, 03:55:22 PM
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Interesting story. Although anyone directly connected is likely deceased by now, I hope this puts some family's nagging doubts to rest.
A separate report indicated they believe that most of the forward fuselage of the plane (the tail section was discovered in '47) may also still be encased in the glacier...
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(AP) SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK, Calif. Park rangers were working with military officials Wednesday in a remote Sierra Nevada glacier to excavate a body believed to be that of an airman who crashed in 1942.
Two unidentified climbers spotted the frozen head, shoulder and arm of body that is 80 percent encased in ice while climbing the glacier on the 13,710-foot Mount Mendel in Kings Canyon National Park, said park spokeswoman Alex Picavet.
A crew of park rangers and specialists will camp on the mountain side, in below-freezing temperatures, for what promises to be long, difficult excavation, Picavet said. The crew includes an expert from the Joint Prisoner of War Accounting Command, which recovers and identifies military personnel who have been missing for decades.
"We're not going to go fast," Picavet said. "We want to preserve him as much as possible. He's pretty intact."
Park officials believe the serviceman, who is wearing a U.S. Army Corps parachute, may be part of the crew of an AT-7 navigational training plane that crashed on Nov. 18, 1942. The wreckage and four bodies were found in 1947 by a climber. This man may have been connected to that expedition, although it's hard to tell until the body's been recovered, Picavet said.
The body was found at the base of the glacier, in a remote, icy area that can be reached only after days of hiking, Picavet said.
Military officials said they've handled cases like this before, recovering bodies of U.S. airmen from extremely remote locations like a Tibetan glacier.
Once the body is identified, and confirmed to be that of a U.S. military serviceman, it would be flown to the family, who could then choose to bury the deceased with full military honors at the government's expense, said Larry Greer, spokesman for the Pentagon's POW-MIA office.
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Thanks for posting that. I hadn't heard anything about it before.
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Hey Seagoon.
Do you have the link to that news?
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Here is a link to an article (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/20/earlyshow/main957473.shtml)
Also, here's a pic of the type of aircraft in question, the AT-7 was the Army Air Corps version of the Beechcraft Model 18.
(http://www.indianamilitary.org/FreemanAAF/WarePhotos/Watermarked%2072%20dpi/050-AT-7-41-1144.jpg)
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I saw a spot about this on the Today show this morning just before I changed the channel.
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"The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command works on hundreds of cases a year, averaging two identifications a week, said spokeswoman Rumi Nielson-Green."
I never would have guessed they were solving that many cases.
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In California?
Story (http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/World/2005/10/20/1270493-sun.html)
Surprising that the identification is taking so long. They are now doing DNA tests. You would think that historical records alone would give them at least a 90% certainty of who this guy is.
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http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=162642
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(http://shafted.com.au/photos/albums/funnies/w/welcome_to_last_week.jpg)
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Brutal. It's kill or be killed on these forums.
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Originally posted by lasersailor184
Brutal. It's kill or be killed on these forums.
:rofl good one :)
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I'm more than happy to provide a place for Rip to use his pictures. He probably has them cataloged and ready to go at a moments notice.
I am still amazed that the airman's identification is taking so long.
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A finnish newspaper is speculating it could be either Ernest Munn or Leo Mustonen, because they were the only ones of the four with white hair.
Why the interest: Leo Mustonen was of a finnish descendant.