(SitNews) Alaska - The remains of 17 service members have been recovered from an aircraft that was lost in Alaska more than six decades ago, Pentagon officials announced Thursday.

On Nov. 22, 1952, a C-124 Globemaster crashed while en route to Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, from McChord Air Force Base, Washington, with 11 crew members and 41 passengers on board. Adverse weather precluded immediate recovery attempts, officials said.

In late November and early December 1952, they added, search parties were unable to locate and recover any of the service members.

Colony Glacier (red pin) is located about 50 miles east of Anchorage.
Map courtesy Google maps.

Almost sixty years later, on June 9, 2012, an Alaska National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crew spotted aircraft wreckage and debris during a training mission over the Colony Glacier, immediately west of Mount Gannett. Three days later, another Alaska Guard team landed at the site to photograph the area and found artifacts at the site that related to the wreckage of the C-124 Globemaster.

Later that month, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and Joint Task Force team conducted a recovery operation at the site and recommended that it continue to be monitored for possible future recovery operations. In 2013, additional artifacts were visible, and JPAC conducted further recovery operations.

Defense Department scientists from the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used forensic tools and circumstantial evidence in the identification of 17 service members. The remaining personnel have yet to be recovered, officials said, and the crash site will continued to be monitored for possible future recovery.

In this June 25, 2012, photo provided by the Army, a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) recovery team works at the site where military aircraft wreckage was found on Colony Glacier, Alaska. The surface was marked with deep crevasses so the team took numerous safety precautions to mitigate the risk. The five-man team initially went out to investigate the area, but deteriorating conditions on the glacier caused the team to transition into recovery mode to ensure the most amount of evidence could be recovered for further analysis at JPAC's Central Identification Laboratory.
Photo by Jamie D. Dobson/Army

The remains of the following service members have been recovered and will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors:

Air Force - Col. Noel Hoblit, Col. Eugene Smith, Capt. Robert Turnbull, 1st Lt. Donald Sheda, 1st Lt. William Turner, Tech. Sgt. Engolf Hagen, Staff Sgt. James Ray, Airman 1st Class Marion Hooton, Airman 2nd Class Carroll Dyer, Airman 2nd Class Thomas Lyons, Airman 2nd Class Thomas Thigpen, and Airman 3rd Class Howard Martin.

Army - Lt. Col. Lawrence Singleton, Pvt. James Green Jr., and Pvt. Leonard Kittle.

Marine Corps - Maj. Earl Stearns.

Navy - Cmdr. Albert Seeboth.

Edited by Mary Kauffman, SitNews

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Pa. airman who died in 1952 crash coming home
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Kansas soldier to be laid to rest six decades after Alaska glacier swallowed plane’s wreckage
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Source of News: 

U.S. Department of Defense
www.dod.gov

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