The U.S. Air Force on Friday announced it had identified the remains of two servicemen who died in the 1952 crash of a C-124 Globemaster cargo plane near Alaska's Colony Glacier.
The remains of Capt. Kenneth Duvall and 2nd Lt. Robert Moon have been recovered and will be sent to their families. The men will receive full military honors, according to the Air Force.
Duvall's obituary was published in The Arizona Republic on Nov. 11, 2014 after his identification tags were found and sent to his sole surviving family member. The obituary says he'd been assigned to fly the Globemaster.
Duvall, of San Francisco, was 37 when he died, according to the obituary. He joined the infantry in 1941, shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and then transferred to the Air Force. He piloted a B-17 bomber, completing his 25th mission a week before the Normandy invasion, the obituary says.
The Globemaster crashed while flying to Elmendorf Air Force Base from McChord Air Force Base in Washington. All 52 servicemen aboard the plane died. The wreckage was found six days after the crash but quickly disappeared due to the shifting glacier, effectively hiding the wreckage for 60 years.
In 2012, an Alaska Army National Guard helicopter pilot spotted the debris, brought to the surface by the movement of the glacier. A team makes annual visits to the area, regularly discovering new debris fields.
As of June 2015, 35 of the 52 victims had not been recovered.
Medical examiners continue to use DNA testing to identify other crew members and passengers who died in the crash, according to the Air Force. The crash site is being monitored for future recoveries.