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WWII airman's body found in glacier in California
Just imagine how many more will be found when (08-20) 19:10 PDT -- 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 on Monday. A hiker discovered the remains on Wednesday at an elevation of 12,300 feet near Mount Darwin inside the park. The remains, which were accompanied by a World War II era uniform and parachute, were being taken on Monday to the the Fresno County coroner's office. Life imitates the Onion...finding this guy 65 years later on Mt. Darwin? Whatta the odds of that? Because of the cold temperature at the recovery site on the Mendel Glacier, the remains included skin, hair and soft tissue, according to Army Major 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." Why, oh why, did they not search around a little bit in 2005? 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 routine training mission and was never heard from again. The plane was believed to have crashed in a blizzard. Can we assume that 2 more bodies will be found in the next few years? After Mustonen's body was found, searchers scoured the area, looking for other remains, but were hampered by the thick snowpack. "If only Al Gore were here!" added the searchers. 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. A serious question...were airmen (in times of training) required to wear dog tags too, or just Army grunts back then? I'd assume since all the other organic stuff is still around, his dogtag would be too. Posted by: BA 2007-08-21 |
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