Second WWII airman's body found in California glacier identified (cnn.com) "The U.S. military has identified frozen remains found atop a California glacier as those of a World War II era airman who vanished more than half a century ago. Ernest G. Munn had been missing since his training flight disappeared over the Sierra Nevada mountain range on November 18, 1942, the U.S. military said Monday. He was 23 at the time. Last year, two hikers found the frozen remains of a man with blond, wavy hair in a remote area of Kings Canyon, east of Fresno, California. A tattered sweater still clung to the body, and an unopened parachute lay nearby, said Peter Sketel, one of the hikers who made the discovery. DNA analysis confirmed that the remains were Munn's, the Department of Defense said Monday. The military has notified his family in St. Clairsville, Ohio.... Munn was one of three cadets who, along with their lieutenant, took off from Mather Field in California on a routine training flight nearly 66 years ago. The AT-7 Navigator aircraft carried about five hours of fuel but never returned to base, the U.S. Department of Defense said. Authorities searched for the men for a month -- without success. Five years later, in 1947, hikers on Darwin Glacier in the Sierra Nevada mountain range discovered plane wreckage but found no bodies. Then, in October 2005, backpackers discovered frozen human remains of a crew member, later identified as Leo M. Mustonen. Two years later, in 2007, Sketel and a friend were in the area researching a book that Sketel is writing about the ill-fated flight. About 100 feet from where Mustonen's body was found, Sketel discovered the remains of a second man emerging from a melting glacier...."

 

60 years after crash, Airman Mustonen is finally buried (sptimes.com)

"A World War II airman whose frozen body was chipped out of a California glacier last fall was laid to rest Friday in his hometown of Brainerd, Minn., more than six decades after the young man disappeared during a training flight. Leo Mustonen's two nieces were among about 100 people who gathered at First Lutheran Church to say goodbye. A full military funeral followed at a cemetery overlooking the Mississippi River.... Mustonen was 22 when his AT-7 navigational plane disappeared after takeoff from a Sacramento, Calif., airfield on Nov. 18, 1942. An engine, scattered remains and clothing were found over the following years, far from the plane's intended course. All four men aboard were killed in the crash.... "

Airman finally heads home (tmcnet.com)

"After years in frozen isolation and a moment in the media spotlight, the remains of Leo Mustonen are going home to rest in peace. The 22-year-old crewman on an ill-fated training flight from Mather Field in 1942 has been identified as the frozen body found in a glacier in the Sierra Nevada last year, military representatives said Thursday. "It's incredible to have the whole family back together again," said Ona Lea, Mustonen's niece, who was born the year he died. Lea, who is also known as Sister Mary Ruth, was given her uncle's effects Thursday: 51 cents, a Schaeffer pen, collar insignia, and the corroded name badge that had provided a partial clue...."

Airman hailed from Minnesota (usatoday.com)

"Remains found in the California mountains last fall are those of an airman from Minnesota whose plane went missing during World War II, relatives said Saturday. The U.S. Department of Defense determined the remains are those of Leo Mustonen, who was 22 when the plane he was in crashed 64 years ago in the Sierra Nevada mountains, the airman's nieces Leane Mustonen Ross and Ona Lea Mustonen told CNN....."

Preliminary result: Airman's remains finally identified (honoluluadvertiser.com)

"Remains found in a California mountain range last fall are believed to be those of an airman from Minnesota whose plane crashed during World War II, a friend of the man's family said yesterday. The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command at Hickam, which has been examining the remains, posted a statement on its Web site calling the findings 'preliminary' and 'currently under review.' Marjorie Freeman of Baxter, Minn., a friend of the family of a missing airman from Minnesota, told The Associated Press that the remains are those of Leo Mustonen, who was 22 when the plane he was in crashed 64 years ago in the Sierra Nevada mountains...."

Forensic anthropologists could ID airman this month (honoluluadvertiser.com)

"The solemn tone of Scott Shriver's voice is noticeable, even though he insists he's not disappointed that his long-lost uncle may not be the mummified airman carved from a California glacier decades after he vanished on an Army training flight. Forensic anthropologists with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command at Hickam Air Force Base are trying to match the remains with one of four airmen lost in 1942. That could happen this month. But Shriver said a lab official already told him that his uncle — Army Aviation Cadet Ernest G. Munn — is probably not the person discovered in October in the Sierra Nevada mountain range...."

Airman's possessions studied to determine identity (washingtontimes.com)

"The airman's possessions, laid out on a table, offer a glimpse of America circa 1942: a fountain pen, three severely damaged address books and 51 cents in dimes, nickels and pennies, dated 1920 to 1942. A handwritten note inside one of the address books reveals the words 'all the girls know,' but the rest is deteriorated and illegible. Forensic scientists at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command are using these and other clues to help them identify a World War II airman whose remarkably well-preserved body was chipped out of a California glacier last month after two mountain climbers discovered his head and arm jutting out of the ice..."

Down to one: Special light source reveals name of one airman (honoluluadvertiser.com)

"Forensic anthropologists in Hawai'i trying to identify the mummified remains of a World War II Army airman have narrowed the list of possible identities to one of four airmen killed in a 1942 crash. By using a special light source, Paul Emanovsky, a forensic anthropologist at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command's identification lab at Hickam Air Force Base, was able to read enough letters on a corroded name tag found with the remains last month, said Army Maj. Rumi Nielson-Green.... The letters would be invisible to the naked eye, she said...."

Identification of frozen airman narrows to four possibilities (signonsandiego.com)

"A military lab scientist said forensic experts working to identify the recently discovered frozen remains of a World War II airman have narrowed down the possibilities to four. Dr. Robert Mann told CNN in an interview Tuesday that analysts have singled out the plane the airman was aboard when it crashed in California some 60 years ago. Records show there were four crew members aboard that plane. The Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command had earlier been looking at 10 possibilities for the identity of the serviceman, whose body was found Oct. 16 jutting out of solid ice atop a mountain in a national park...."

Body arrives in Hawaii for identification process (bakersfieldonline.us)

"The well-preserved remains of a World War II airman found frozen in the Sierra Nevada arrived at a military laboratory for identification. A pen, small notebook, hair comb and coins were recovered inside the airman's Army uniform, officials said. His dog tags were not immediately found, but a badly corroded name badge on the uniform will be examined.... Maj. Rumi Nielson-Green said officials at JPAC's Central Identification Laboratory have narrowed the list of possible missing servicemen to fewer than 10 individuals, but the list could change any time. The airman, apparently a Caucasian with fair hair, was flown to Hawaii in a blue body bag inside a U.S. flag-draped metal casket. It was transported to the lab in a military van and unloaded by four soldiers. Inside the lab, two forensic anthropologists and a dentist will examine the body, teeth and clothing during the identification process, which could take as little as a few weeks or many months or perhaps years.... An identification could solve part of a decades-old mystery - the disappearance of a navigational training plane that left a Sacramento airfield in November 1942 carrying a crew of four on a routine flight. The pilot was 2nd Lt. William A Gamber, 23, of Fayette, Ohio. The three aviation cadets aboard were aviation Cadet Ernest Munn, 23, of St. Clairsville, Ohio; John Mortenson, 25, of Moscow, Idaho; and Leo M. Mustonen, 22, of Brainerd, Minn...."

Others believe the airman may have hailed from Minnesota (duluthsuperior.com)

"In the weeks after Leo Mustonen disappeared, telegrams arrived regularly at the Brainerd home of his parents, telling Arvid and Anna Mustonen about effortsto find a training plane carrying U.S. Army Air Corps cadets that had vanished somewhere in the California hills on Nov. 18, 1942. Last week, decades after Arvid and Anna took their grief to their graves, authorities announced that one of the airmen -- his body intact, wearing a uniform and frozen in a glacier -- has been found. The young man's identity may not be verified for months, but it is likely that he is Leo Mustonen or one of his three comrades, who disappeared into a dawn sky nearly 63 years ago...."

Some investigators track identity of airman to St. Clairsville, Ohio (news-register.net)

"More than 60 years have passed since U.S. Army Air Forces aviation Cadet Ernest Munn disappeared along with the rest of his flight crew over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, but investigators and family members believe the Belmont County man's remains may finally have been found.... Jeanne Pyle, 85, of Pleasant Grove is Munn's oldest sister. She described her brother as 'real outgoing,' noting that 'everybody loved him....' Following her brother's disappearance, Pyle said, people from the family's church and members of their extended family would check to see if there was any word about him and offer their condolences. She pointed out that because many families were losing young men to World War II, there was no special observance of the loss in the community...." 

Mummified flier may be named on California tombstone (newutah.com)

"For nearly 60 years, the names of a pilot and three crew members who died when their plane crashed into an icy peak in the Sierra Nevada have been etched on a military gravestone while most of their remains have rested on a lonely mountain. On Friday, a coroner was examining fresh clues given up by a receding glacier this week and trying to identify the frozen body of a fair-haired World War II airman that climbers found intact and still wearing his parachute. The identity could solve part of a decades-old mystery of what happened after the AT-7 navigational training plane left a Sacramento airfield Nov. 18, 1942, for a routine training flight through the Central Valley -- never to be heard from again...." 

Excavation begins on mummy of suspected World War II flier (cbsnews.com)

"Rangers in Kings Canyon National Park and a military recovery expert started excavating a glacier-entombed corpse on Wednesday. The body is believed to be a World War II airman who died in a 1942 plane crash. Two ice climbers reported seeing a frozen head, shoulder and arm while climbing the glacier on the side of 13,710-foot Mount Mendel in the Sierra Nevada on Sunday, park spokesperson Alexandra Picavet said. The body was 80 percent encased in ice, and still wearing an Army-issued parachute.Officials say the man's torn sweater reveals skin, and parts of his sandy-blonde hair are still intact..."

World War II flier found frozen in Mount Mendel Glacier (abclocal.go.com)

"It was a plane crash back in 1942 that wasn't discovered until 1947. Now, hikers made a frozen discovery in connection with a World War II plane crash. Hikers found the frozen body of an airman while scaling Mount Mendel Glacier in the Sequoia National Park. Now, the military is working to find out who this airman is and whether he was ever reported missing. It's believed the airman has been frozen in the glacier for decades until a pair of climbers got much more than ever imagined on a hike...."