Posted on 12/13/2023 11:05:15 PM PST by SunkenCiv
In 2005, a group of ice climbers stumbled upon a frozen body buried in the ice. The body wore military clothes, making experts wonder if the soldier was on a secret mission at his demise.
A World War 2 Soldier Was Found Frozen in Ice! | Secrets In the Ice | 8:54
Science Channel | 4.64M subscribers | 3,249,007 views | April 20, 2023
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
Transcript 0:00 · In October 2005, two backcountry ice climbers make their way to the base of the Mendel 0:07 · Glacier, just over 1000ft below the summit. 0:13 · A piece of fabric fluttering near a mound of rubble attracts their attention. 0:18 · As they get closer to the mound, they see something that they can't unsee. 0:26 · It's a corpse partially buried in the ice and snow. 0:32 · They can tell it's a male body. 0:34 · It's lying face down, Arms spread out. 0:41 · His head had been crushed. 0:43 · And when they got closer. 0:45 · They saw that he was even missing a leg. 0:48 · Over time, his face has become unrecognizable. 0:52 · But his head is still covered in thick, blond hair. 0:55 · The ice climbers wonder if this was once a hiker who met an unfortunate end. 1:01 · Who was this person? 1:04 · Then they see his knapsack and realize that it's not a knapsack, it's a parachute. 1:13 · On closer inspection, they see the words US Army Air Corps stenciled on the fabric. 1:21 · Us Army Air Corps is an old name. 1:24 · It's a forerunner of the US Air Force. 1:26 · But back then, before the attack on Pearl Harbor, it was called the US Army Air Corps. 1:32 · When the hikers brushed the snow off the body, it's confirmed his uniform is clearly 1:38 · from the Second World War. 1:40 · World War Two servicemen in California. 1:45 · That's strange. 1:47 · But we do know that top secret activities were carried out during World War Two all 1:51 · over the American West. 1:53 · Was this soldier involved in a mission that has never been revealed? 1:59 · The climbers alert local law enforcement to their bizarre discovery. 2:04 · Within days. 2:05 · A specialized military response team is on the scene. 2:10 · The first order of business in an investigation like this is obviously to get 2:14 · the remains back to the lab. 2:18 · Because they didn't want to damage the body and it was encased in ice. 2:22 · They ended up taking a block of ice with the body back to the lab. 2:27 · That's where forensic anthropologists will gently thaw him out by spraying him with 2:31 · water. They need to go slowly to minimize any damage to tissues. 2:38 · The forensic anthropologists, of course, begin to look through his personal effects. 2:43 · And they find a nameplate. 2:46 · But unfortunately, it's terribly corroded and unreadable. 2:50 · Investigators turned to the same tools employed at crime scenes. 2:54 · An ultraviolet light helps tease out faint details on the nameplate. 3:01 · Inscribed in the metal are the letters e o a m. 3:08 · They searched through the military records, but there's no names that match those 3:11 · letters. 3:14 · But the pockets of the dead man's uniform offer several clues. 3:20 · 11 coins. 3:22 · A fountain pen and a scrap of paper. 3:25 · What was written down on that note that he was carrying with him? 3:28 · Was he bringing some kind of secret message? 3:32 · This time they use a high resolution video spectral comparator. 3:36 · It's actually the same technology that the FBI uses to investigate suspicious documents. 3:42 · The comparator is able to decipher the faded words. 3:46 · Could it be coded classified information? 3:51 · Turned out to be a few lines from a limerick. 3:52 · And given the kind of songs and stories that lighten the mood for military members going 3:57 · off to war, you can imagine what kind of limerick it was. 4:01 · If he wasn't on a secret mission, why was he there? 4:08 · The skies over the Sierra Nevada were busy during the war years. 4:13 · Airmen were trained at several nearby bases. 4:16 · Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, aviation cadets often crash, and there were 4:22 · lots of crashes in that vicinity. 4:25 · Since World War Two, nearly 50 aircraft have been listed as missing in the area around 4:32 · Kings Canyon Park. 4:34 · Some of the planes in the backcountry have never been found. 4:37 · So how do you match this airman to his plane? 4:46 · The coins in the man's pockets may help narrow down the timeline. 4:51 · The most recent coin is from 1942. 4:54 · So obviously that was the earliest year he might have crashed. 4:59 · A search through the military archives for 1942 finally offers a clue. 5:06 · November 18th, 1942. 5:10 · Seven military aircraft took off from Mather Air Base outside of Sacramento on a training 5:14 · flight. Only six aircraft returned. 5:20 · These planes were Beech 87 seconds. 5:23 · Twin engine aircraft used for navigational training. 5:27 · Air Force recovery records show that two years after the end of the war in 1947, the 5:33 · wreck was found in the vicinity of where the airman's body was located. 5:39 · But something doesn't add up. 5:41 · Official documents already list a place of burial under a single headstone for the four 5:46 · man crew that was aboard. 5:49 · If the four men are already buried. 5:52 · Who is this fifth mystery man? 5:54 · The team then catches a break. 5:56 · They find the flight manifest of the airplane. 6:00 · One of the names on the manifest is Leo Mustonen, a 22 year old cadet from Minnesota. 6:09 · The letters of his name are close to the letters found on the corpse's ID tags, but 6:14 · they'll need more evidence to get a definite match. 6:17 · They turn to DNA analysis. 6:21 · The sample is mitochondrial DNA, a molecule that's passed from mother to son. 6:25 · And it's this kind of information that they need in order to make the identification of 6:29 · this airman. 6:30 · But when the team tracks down the Mustin family, they discover that there are no 6:35 · maternal relatives alive to provide a sample for comparison. 6:39 · But then the investigation team realizes that there's another way that DNA can help with 6:44 · this case. It's called process of elimination. 6:47 · Investigators trace the families of the other three airmen known to be on board the flight. 6:54 · Luckily, those families are able to provide DNA samples that can be compared to the DNA 7:00 · of the mystery airman. 7:03 · None of them is a match. 7:04 · So the investigators can conclude that these have to be the remains of Air cadet Leo 7:09 · Mustonen, who was only 22 years old when he died. 7:14 · The mystery of the Sierra Airmen's identity is solved. 7:20 · So what about that name tag? 7:23 · Why was there no match? 7:25 · Well, it turns out the investigation was thrown off by a misspelling. 7:29 · Leo Mustonen's middle name was Arvid Leo Mustonen, not Leo Mustonen. 7:38 · The report incorrectly reported his middle initial as M. 7:44 · But one thing still doesn't add up. 7:47 · The military said that there were four bodies in that grave. 7:50 · So who is the fourth body of Leo Mustonen was actually buried in the ice. 7:58 · It turned out that the military hadn't been entirely forthcoming about the burial, and 8:02 · the reasons are actually quite understandable. 8:04 · When the crash was discovered, no bodies were found to bury. 8:10 · But the military thought it'd be easier on the families if they had a grave, if they had 8:14 · a place to visit. 8:17 · And so they told them that the bodies were found, but just not identifiable. 8:21 · And they staged a mock burial in that grave. 8:27 · In 2007, two years after the discovery of Leo Mustonen's body. 8:32 · Searchers found the body of another crew member, Glen Munn. 8:39 · The other two crewmen are still out there resting in the Sierra Nevada.
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He might have taken a super soldier serum.
It’s always good to hear a lost service member comes home and is properly identified and in Leo’s cases, presumably laid to rest.
My 2nd cousin was a WWII soldier, he saw a man shot down in battle somewhere and he was not found due to heavy snowfall, so Graydon told them he could take them to the body. He did, and when they uncovered the frozen body they put the dead man in the back of the canvas covered truck and told Graydon to ride back there with it. He said it was so cold he thought he would die too, and the dead man had an arm frozen stiff sticking out. He said the body tried to roll over time after time as the drove the dirt trail out of there, it would roll over on that frozen arm and flip up as it went. Graydon said he finally slid the man over and slid his arm under the bench seat on one side of the truck where troops would generally ride and by doing so got the body stopped from flipping up and down on that frozen arm.
Fantastic read!.........................
Appropriate enough timing. Yesterday was the anniversary of White Friday. In the first World War, and on the 13th of December in the Alpine theater there were massive avalanches, killing up to 10,000 men. Small enough in the scope of the war, but still.
I met a guy recently who was assigned to the Soldier Identification unit in Hawaii, dedicated to doing this forensic research.
I’m sure the climbers had good intentions with their actions but this was on a glacier (Mendel) in the US. Once they disturbed enough of the remains to give them the knowledge it was a US Servicemember, they should have left them alone and notified the US military.
Teapottious tempestous
It doesn’t matter because it doesn’t matter what they did. Some have been watching too much TV
As a former service member, I still think the remains should have been treated like for what they are rather than some archeological dig.
I taught a Senior NCO leadship class, ANCOC now SLC. I had two Soldiers from the recovery taskforce come through my school. Both had very interesting stories. The class got a huge laugh when one of the Soldiers started out, “when I was in Nam..” This was 2004.
Thanks!
Your mention of White Friday is woefully inadequate. I think it is hyperbole to say 10,000 died. As wiki notes 10,000 may have died in avalanches in December 1916.
These were Austro-Hungarian Kaiserschützen military.
White Friday occurred during the Italian front of World War I, when an avalanche struck Austro-Hungarian barracks on Mount Marmolada, killing 270 soldiers. Other avalanches the same day struck Italian and other Austro-Hungarian positions, killing hundreds. According to some reports, both sides deliberately fired shells into the weakened snowpacks in an attempt to bury the other side.
On Wednesday, December 13, 1916, at 5:30 a.m., over 200,000 tons (approx. 1 million cubic metres) of snow and ice plunged down the mountainside directly onto the barracks. The wooden buildings packed with soldiers, collapsed under the weight of the avalanche, crushing the occupants. Of the 321 troops present, 229 were Kaiserschützen mountain infantry and 102 were Bosnians from a support column. Only a few were pulled to safety while 270 were buried alive. Only 40 of the bodies were ever recovered from the pileup. Among those who survived was Captain Schmid along with his aide, who escaped slightly injured.
Note, that only 40 bodies were ever recovered, so apparently their are a lot of bodies still buried in the snow pack which has yet to melt.
Until now, it had never occurred to me that Italy was on our side in World War 1.
So was Japan.
bump
So the military lied to parents.
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