World War II Airman Found Frozen in Glacier

[Michaelson]

My father's side of the family came from Germany and Wales, and arrived in the U.S. through Canada just after the Civil War. My mother's side were (and still ARE) born and raised in North Carolina for generations. Their marriage was (and still IS) considered a 'mixed marriage' by Mom's side of the family....a Yankee and a Southern gal getting married! Horrors! I have always been accepted, but just barely, by her side of the family.

What I've found SO amusing all my life is that to this day, NO one on my Mom's side of the family will admit having ANY members of the family involved in the Civil War....even though they lived smack dab in the middle of the battle lines when the war went through the Apex/Chapel Hill area.

Regards! Michaelson

 

[Bill O'Rights]

Their marriage was (and still IS) considered a 'mixed marriage' by Mom's side of the family....a Yankee and a Southern gal getting married! Horrors! I have always been accepted, but just barely, by her side of the family.

I, also, am the product of one of those "mixed" marriages. My mother's (Florida) grandfather would not allow my father (Pennsylvania) into his house, saying; "Ain't no damned Yankee ever gonna step foot in my house." He recanted after I was born, 43 years ago. I was the first "Yankee" to enter his home. Dad soon followed.

 

[Virgil Ante]

does anyone have an update

does anyone have an update on the original topic of this thread? I wondered if they were able to identify him, and who he was.

 

[Michaelson]

I caught a blurb on CNN a couple nights ago that they thought they did know who it was, and did DNA comparisons, but the person they thought it was, it ended up not being the case, so the testing continues.

Regards! Michaelson

 

[Hondo]

From CNN:

Frozen Airman Mystery

COOK: A mystery that could date back to that war is unfurling in Hawaii where a forensics laboratory is examining a body found last month in the Sierra Nevada mountains. It was mostly encased in a glacier, wearing an army uniform and unopened parachute. Researchers don't know whether this will lead to answers about a training plane that disappeared in 1942, but Thelma Gutierrez tells us what is known about a man frozen in time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN REPORTER: An address book, a plastic comb, a vintage penny...you're looking at the last things a young airman put into his pockets on the day he died. Clues to a World War Two cold case, that you're about to see for the very first time.

The search for clues takes us to Honolulu, Hawaii, to the largest forensic crime lab in the world, to the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command or JPAC. The mystery of the frozen airman is just one of more than a thousand unsolved cases that scientists here at JPAC are trying to solve. In this laboratory alone, I'm surrounded by the remains of at least 20 different service members who are in the process of being identified so that they too can go home. The investigation begins with a team of forensic specialists, who probe and study the airman's, bones, teeth and his belongings to piece together who he is, and almost immediately clues begin to surface. Dr. Robert Mann, a forensic anthropologist has determined that the airman was Caucasian and had fair hair.

And the airman's collar bones and pelvic bones prove that he was in his 20's and died in an airplane crash. So this is a person who likely died on impact versus perhaps freezing to death in the mountains?

DR. ROBERT MANN, FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGIST: I think that the injuries were so substantial and severe that he wouldn't have felt anything. He would have died immediately.

GUTIERREZ: Then there are the material clues... the things he had on him when he died. In his uniform breast pocket, Dr. Paul Emanovski found this vintage Schaffer pen and three small leather-bound address books. After hours of meticulous examination of each address book, they yield no personal information - clues that could have faded with time.

And in the weeks and months ahead, scientists are convinced they will identify this airman and return him home to his family -- wherever they might be. Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Honolulu, Hawaii.

The above text was dated Nov.1st, below is more recent Nov 2nd.

Frozen Airman's Identity Narrowed DownNovember 2, 2005 - A few more clues are coming to light about the identity of the World War II era airman found frozen in the Kings Canyon National Park last month.

The body found frozen is still a mystery, but there are some intriguing clues ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù an old pen, a penny, a plastic comb and three small leather-bound address books.
Forensic experts at the lab in Hawaii are more convinced he was one of four people on an Army plane that crashed not far from the Valley, in the Sierra in 1942. It's roughly in the same place climbers found the body last month.

The four military airman on board the plane were William Gamber, John Mortenson, Ernest Munn and Leo Mustonen.

Anthropologists have been working on these remains for more than a week. In Hawaii, the unsolved case is one of more than 1,000 under examination.

While there's no dead give away to the airman's identity, scientists are confident they'll eventually make a positive identification.

Family members of at least one of the possible servicemen have already spoken up, claiming the remains belong to their relative.

Scientists in Hawaii still insist they will not identify the body until they have biological proof.

http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=local&id=3597053

 

[Captain America]

According to this evenings news---they are relatively sure who it is based on the metal name tag found on his person. But the military requires a second source of ID so they are sampling his DNA for comparison against family of the four crewmen. The results will not be divulged until after the 1st of the year. Partially to give plenty of time to run the necessary tests partially because they do not wish to give bad news over the holidays. And for 3 out of the 4 families involved it will be bad news. They also mentioned the parks service has vowed to return to the area to find the 3 airmen who remain frozen in time.

 

[MrBern]

WWII MIA, 7 USN airmen recovered

A different story, but thought it best kept in this thread.

WWII Seaman's body identified from PBY5 wreck on Kiska volcano:

http://suvalleynews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=131

 

[ShanghaiJack]

Humm

Excellent article Mr Bern

SJ

 

[MrBern]

digging up the lost

a website on aircraft archaeology

http://www.redkitebooks.co.uk/aa/

 

[MrBern]

has anyone seen anymore of the frozen airman story?

this link has pics of his chute, & the coins in his pocket
http://www.af.mil/news/story_media.asp?storyID=123013212

 

[Captain Krunch]

Airman Identified

According to CNN, the airman has been identified:

CNN Article

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Frozen WWII Airman to Get Proper Burial

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/03/24/D8GHSVPO0.html

 

[Hondo]

Frozen WWII airman laid to rest

I caught this on NBC evening news, funeral with family.

Leo Mustonen's plane crashed into icy Sierra Nevadas in 1942.


http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/24/frozen.airman.ap/index.html

 

[MrBern]

New Guinea pilot ID'd

saw this posted on another board:

Remains Found in New Guinea of WWII Pilot

Fri Mar 31, 4:32 PM ET

SUFFOLK, Va. - Human remains found in the wreckage of a World War II
bomber in New Guinea have been identified as a 24-year-old airman who
disappeared on a stormy night in 1943.

The remains of Charles "Buddy" Feucht were identified through DNA testing.

His sister Fern Lord, who had submitted a vial of her blood for DNA
comparison, got the news Thursday.

"It's been so long," said Lord, 83. "Every day, you wake up and wonder
if this is the one."

Feucht, a bombardier aboard a B-24 Liberator, was part of a formation
looking for Japanese ships during a violent thunderstorm when his
plane separated from the others to take a closer look at the water
below. He and the rest of his nine-man crew vanished.

A hunter in the New Guinea jungle discovered the rusted wreckage of
the plane in 2002. He collected a human bone and a handful of metal ID
tags and delivered them to the U.S. Embassy in Papua New Guinea, along
with the plane's tail number and location.

An excavation crew traveled to the site the following year and found
more bones, teeth and ID bracelets inside the shattered cockpit.

Johnny Johnson, a specialist with the Army's Casualty and Mortuary
Affairs operations center in Alexandria, declined Friday to say
whether the others had been identified because other crewmates'
families have not been contacted.

Buddy Feucht was one of two sons in the war. The family's farmhouse in
the small Ohio town of Reynoldsburg was never locked, in case he came
home. Today, Lord and her 85-year-old sister, Mary, are the only
remaining members of his immediate family.

"God kept us on this earth just long enough so we could find out what
happened to him," Lord said. "I don't know whether to laugh or cry."

Feucht's remains will be flown under military escort to Ohio, where he
will be buried with full military honors beside his parents.

 

[Story]

from The Australian

WWII US airmen's remains found in PNG

* From correspondents in Port Moresby
* March 05, 2007

A US military recovery team has found the remains of American servicemen who died in plane crashes in Papua New Guinea during World War II.

The bones and personal effects of aircrew were found in recent weeks during excavations of crash sites in the mountains of Morobe Province.

Three recovery teams from the Joint Prisoners of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command (JPAC) based in Hawaii have been in PNG since January 18 employing local labour and PNG police as security as they excavated the sites.

The recovery teams' chief, Major Albert Tabarez, said they were looking for the remains of 14 US servicemen at the three aircraft crash sites.

So far, two teams had found remains and personal effects, he said.

Forensic scientists in Hawaii would examine the teeth and bones they had found to determine the identities of the servicemen.

"We are here to find every bone, every tooth and personal effect and bring them back to their families," Maj Tabarez said.

The human remains could then be buried with full military honours.

The mission is being conducted under an agreement signed between the PNG and US governments.

In Hawaii, JPAC spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Mark Brown said families in the US had been waiting for more than 50 years for answers about what happened to their loved ones.

Thanks to US and PNG efforts, some of those questions would finally be answered, he said.

The US government has conducted recovery missions in PNG since 1979.

 

[birddog]

I'm not suprised a frozen airman was found. With the onslaught of global warming I'm sure more airplanes will fall out of glaciers both in North America & Europe. Several years ago, an entraprenerial type paid a fortune to remove & restore a Lockheed P-38 out of a glacier in Greenland, & he plane is now flying in the U.S. as "The Glacier Girl" Several other aircraft, including B-17s were found at the same time, but it was determined that the cost & condition of the planes was not worth the recovery effort. (Glaciers move & snow/ice is heavy, thus grinding the planes into pieces). With the number of missing planes from WW2 it seems reasonable to me that some should still have crew aboard.