Frozen in time

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Kyle Johnson
  • JBER Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  Glaciers are essentially ice rivers that flow down mountains through gravitational pull on the weight of repeated snowfalls that eventually freeze and are absorbed into the glacier.

One glacier, about 50 miles east of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, has carried an invaluable payload for the past 65 years.

On Nov. 22, 1952, a C-124 Globemaster II and its 52 passengers crashed into Mount Gannett. The Air Force deemed the crash site too dangerous to attempt recovery.

In time, the plane and all it’s contents were absorbed into Colony Glacier and remained frozen, flowing 14 miles down the mountain until 2012, when an Alaska Army National Guard helicopter pilot spotted the wreckage beginning to surface as the glacier makes its lethargic journey.

Finally, after 60 years of inaccessibility, an effort began to recover the remains of the plane and its crew; all but 14 passengers have been recovered. Each one has been identified.

However, the crash site is only accessible each summer for about a one-month period, so the process is expected to last a few more years.

The C-124 Globemaster II was developed with gauges that could potentially contain small amounts of radioactive material, so after every piece of metal is recovered, it first has to be cleared by the JBER Bioenvironmental Engineering Flight assigned to the 673d Medical Group.

“Small dials like this are not fissile material that can go boom,” said Air Force Capt. Adam Hanson, 673d Aerospace Medical Squadron, Bioenvironmental Engineering Flight, environmental health element chief. “Radioactive materials are more common than one might think, for example, watches, clocks and smoke detectors.”

Because of this, the Bioenvironmental Engineering Flight believes the risk for environmental damage from the radioactive material is nearly zero, Hanson said. He clarified it's no different than the radiation their specialists use to treat people in the hospital under the nuclear medicine department. The goal is to clear the wreckage and recover the remains as quickly and safely as possible.

Neatly arranged behind the east side of Hangar 4 on the Bryant Army Airfield lay six wooden pallets holding four-foot-tall plywood boxes.

The Air Force Mortuary Affairs out of Dover, Air Force Base, Delaware teamed up, as they do every summer, with the Alaska Army National Guard to recover as much of the wreckage as possible.

Set apart from the debris-filled boxes, laying in the grass a few feet off the side of the boxes, was one piece of metal half a dozen feet long, warped and twisted like all the other debris. It was a piece of a propeller waiting to be cleared by Bioenvironmental Engineering Flight so it could be presented to family of the fallen.

“It’s great to be a part of this, we can offer closure to the families these service members and also showcase what we do and how it contributes to the Air Force mission,” said Air Force Master Sgt. Ninfa McKnight, 673d AMDS Bioenvironmental Engineering Flight noncommissioned officer in charge. “We don’t leave anybody behind.”

Because everything has to be scanned, Hanson and McKnight’s team have found everything from tea bags in metal pouches, rusted into a solid whole, to a Christmas shopping catalog with certain products circled, presumably with the intent to purchase for a loved one, Mcknight said.

“It’s sad, I’m a wife and mom with two kids,” McKnight said. “If that was me on that aircraft, I’d be looking forward to the holidays coming and thinking about what I’m going to buy my kids – it’s sad. My heart goes out to them.”

Most of the paper products disintegrated after being handled, Hanson said.

“This is a cool radiation project that is unique to this area, but at the same time it makes me step back and think: ‘Wow these are people who sacrificed for their country,” Hanson said. “There’s this terrible tragedy that has happened to these families. I would have rather not have this exciting job and avoid this tragedy than have the opportunity with the tragedy.”

So far, the only radioactive material recovered has been a dial with a very faint reading, Hanson said.

The project is expected to last until the glacier calves off in a few years, Hanson said.

Until then, there are 14 people yet to be found.