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Department of Defense recovery teams assigned to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, and Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, participated in Operation Colony Glacier June 2 to 23.
The annual mission focuses on recovering human remains and aircraft debris from a 1952 crash of a U.S. Air Force C-124 Globemaster II at Colony Glacier in Alaska.
In November 1952, the aircraft crashed into nearby Mount Gannett in the Chugach Mountains killing all 52 service members on board from the Navy, Marines, Army and Air Force. The recovery effort has taken place every summer since 2012 by personnel from Alaskan Command, Alaska National Guard, Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations, U.S. Army Alaska, 673d Air Base Wing, 3rd Wing and Detachment 1, 66th Training Squadron.
“It was my first time participating, and it has been a unique experience,” said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Isaac Redmond, a reconnaissance team leader assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, U.S Army Alaska, and mountaineer noncommission officer in charge for Operation Colony Glacier 2020.
Redmond said the mission is key for providing answers and closure for those who lost a loved one in the crash.
“This mission is so significant because it not only gives families the closure they deserve, but it also shows that we as Americans will do whatever it takes to bring their loved ones home,” Redmond said. “Service members and civilians who worked with us in support of the recovery are symbols of not just our branches of the military, but also the American people as a whole.”
After flying to the glacier six days a week for a period of three weeks, this summer’s iteration of Operation Colony Glacier came to an end.
“This year’s mission was extremely successful,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Shelby Yoakum, Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations readiness and plans division chief assigned to Dover AFB and acting ground force commander for Operation Colony Glacier 2020. “We were very lucky this year and had no safety incidences while we were on the glacier. I feel very comfortable saying that overall it was a success between the remains we were able to recover and making sure everybody was safe out there on the glacier.”
According to Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations, since the wreckage discovery in 2012, 43 of the 52 service members have been identified.
Now with 408 bags of remains, the recovery teams have high hopes of finding new evidence that can help identify and give closure to the remaining families.
“When you consider how many specimens summited to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, we have thousands of chances to find a new ID,” said Katherine Grosso, a medicolegal investigator assigned to the Office of Armed Forces Medical Examiner at Dover AFB. “The likelihood we have representations from past IDs is pretty high, but these are great odds for new identification, especially considering how successful the mission was this year and last year. I’m hopeful by the end of this year we will have new identifications.”
| Date Taken: | 06.29.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 07.13.2020 17:06 |
| Story ID: | 373074 |
| Location: | JBER, AK, US |
| Web Views: | 40 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Operation Colony Glacier unearths secrets of decades-old aircraft crash, by SrA Jonathan Valdes, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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