Body found in glacier believed to be WWII airman

[KG_CrimsonTrooper]

Body found in glacier believed to be WWII airman




Thursday, October 20, 2005; Posted: 8:15 a.m. EDT (12:15 GMT)

FRESNO, California (AP) -- Two climbers on a Sierra Nevada glacier discovered an ice-encased body believed to be that of an airman whose plane crashed in 1942.
The man was wearing a World War II-era Army-issued parachute when his frozen head, shoulder and arm were spotted Sunday on 13,710-foot Mount Mendel in Kings Canyon National Park, park spokeswoman Alex Picavet said.
Park rangers and specialists camped on the remote mountainside in freezing weather for an excavation. The body was 80 percent encased in ice, Picavet said Wednesday. (Watch video of the delicate excavation -- 1:37)
"We're not going to go fast," she said. "We want to preserve him as much as possible. He's pretty intact."
The excavation crew included an expert from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, a military unit that identifies and recovers personnel who have been missing for decades.
Park officials believe the serviceman may have been part of the crew of an AT-7 navigational training plane that crashed on November 18, 1942. The wreckage and four bodies were found in 1947 by a climber.
Some 88,000 Americans are missing in action from past wars, military officers said. Most of them -- 78,000 -- are from World War II.
The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command works on hundreds of cases a year, averaging two identifications a week, said spokeswoman Rumi Nielson-Green.
Finding bodies preserved in a glacier is unusual but not unheard of, command officials said. Two years ago, the unit recovered the body of a Cold War-era officer who died in Greenland.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/20/fro....ap/index.html

[KG_Noggs]

I Heard about that, Interisting

[KG_AGCent]

Very interesting story. I hate the friking commercials you have to ignore in order to watch the 1:37 long video of absolute pap. Obviously written for the lowest common denominator. CNN is good at that.

[KG_Noggs]

Originally Posted by KG_AGCent

Very interesting story. I hate the friking commercials you have to ignore in order to watch the 1:37 long video of absolute pap. Obviously written for the lowest common denominator. CNN is good at that.

Say What???

[GDS_Starfury]

In related news...... AGC's sense of humor was also found in a glacier.....

[KG_Noggs]

Amen to that!