Colony Glacier, Alaska. (June 4, 2024): It’s a guarantee to every servicemember; America will never quit looking for you if you are missing… ever. In this photo by Technical Sergeant Don Hudson, Captain Travis Lockwood, Operation Colony Glacier deputy ground forces commander, and Lieutenant Colonel Crystal A. Glaster, Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations deputy commander, trek across the site of a 1952 crash of a C-124 Globemaster II aircraft that took the lives of all fifty-two people on board. Captain Lockwood leads Operation Colony Glacier, an annual summer expedition seeking the remains of the crash victims. Colonel Glaster coordinates Air Force search efforts while collaborating with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command that is charged with recovery of missing servicemembers. Teams of military and civilian personnel defy the elements to uphold our nation's pledge to leave no service member behind.
On a stormy night on November 22, 1952, a Douglas C-124 Globemaster II military transport aircraft issued a distress call which was received by a nearby commercial pilot. The Globemaster was flying without visual references and was using altitude readings, a radio beacon, and a stopwatch for navigation. There was no further communication from the C-124, and it failed to arrive at Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage. The plane had a crew of 11 and 41 Army and Air Force passengers.
Three days later, the wreckage of the plane was found on the side of Mount Gannett at an altitude of over 8,000 feet. The search for the plane involved thirty-two military aircraft investigating the surrounding mountains and four Coast Guard vessels combing Prince William Sound. The crash site was quickly buried in deep snow and many of the victims have yet to be recovered to this day.
A reexamination of the crash in 2012 suggested the actual crash site was farther north on the Colony Glacier than previously thought. An Alaska Army National Guard helicopter spotted items from the C-124 fourteen miles from the official crash site and a ground team confirmed it was wreckage from the C-124.
In 2019, the Department of Defense reported forty sets of remains have been identified and the search continues.