This story, originally published on March 15, has been updated.
Four more airmen killed in the 1952 C-124 Globemaster II crash in Alaska have been identified in recent weeks, according to the Air Force.
The airmen identified between Feb. 19 and March 7 are Capt. Kenneth Duvall, 2nd Lt. Robert Moon, Airmen 2nd Class Thomas Condon and Conrad Sprague. Their remains will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors, the service said.
The ongoing effort to bring the airmen home is part of Operation Colony Glacier, a mission launched in 2012 to recover the decades-old wreckage and identify the 52 service members killed in the crash.
The mission was activated after an Alaska National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk crew spotted aircraft wreckage as a result of a melting glacier. Every year since, military members and civilians — which include a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and a joint task force team, Alaskan Command and Alaska National Guard personnel — have returned to the crash site to remove debris and human remains.
The glacier moves between 200 and 300 meters each year, and as it recedes, more of the wreckage becomes exposed, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Paul Cocker, a lead planner for Operation Colony Glacier, told Air Force Times last year.
The recent IDs total the Air Force's recovery at 25 airmen. Additionally, one Marine Corps, one Navy and four Army casualties have been discovered from the crash, identifying 31 of the 52 servicemembers, Air Force spokeswoman Rose Richeson told Air Force Times.
Using testing done by the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, medical examiners from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System have also made other recent discoveries:
Air Force Capt. Walter Perrin Tribble and Airman 2nd Class Bernis F. White were recovered and identified on Oct. 8.
Airman 3rd Class Loyd L. Matthews was recovered and identified on Oct. 30.
Airman 2nd Class Bateman R. Burns was recovered and identified Nov. 3.
"We don't know how far up the glacier the debris field, if you will, may exist," Cocker said. "A good estimate would be three to five more years, just based on what we've seen over the past four summers. I don't think anybody would be able to predict exactly how long this will go."
Oriana Pawlyk covers deployments, cyber, Guard/Reserve, uniforms, physical training, crime and operations in the Middle East, Europe and Pacific for Air Force Times. She was the Early Bird Brief editor in 2015. Email her at opawlyk@airforcetimes.com.
