NOTE: This post has been moved from its position as a stand-alone initial
post to a reply to carmedic's excellent post. I just contacted my old friend,
writer Peter Stekel, yesterday when I found he was working on a book about
the crash that took the lives of four airmen in 1942. While researching the
crash site for an upcoming book, he found the remains of a second of the
four airmen. He has discovered more interesting and explanitory details
about the crash. and thanks for the information dgt

In late October of 2005, a new chapter of what was until then thought to be a
finished book came to light. Ice climbers on Mendel Glacier below the summit of
Mount Mendel in a remote part of King's Canyon National Park found the body
of a man frozen in ice. It was speculated, and then confirmed, that he was
part of a four man crew, three students and a pilot, who had been lost during a
storm over 60 years before, on Nov. 18, 1942.



You can read about the initial discovery here. and here.


The plane was an AT-7 on a training flight from Mather Field in Sacramento, CA to Los Ba�os, CA.
Source
More about the AT-7 (Pima Air Museum site)

The crew of four and their plane were searched for but not found. The families
were notified of the deaths. The wreck was finally located in September,1947,
but there was no sign of the bodies. The official U S Army Air Corps crash
report stated that the bodies had been found and buried in a common grave.
Click image below to enlarge the Crash Site Investigation Report.


It seemed like the last chapter of the book had been written.

Then came the 2005 discovery. Forensics finally determined that the man was
indeed one of the missing crew, Aviation Cadet Leo Mustonen. His fellow crew on
the flight were the pilot, 2nd Lt. William Gamber, Aviation Cadet John M.
Mortenson, and Aviation Cadet Ernest Glenn Munn. Further searching found no
other bodies. There the story paused again for a few years - or perhaps the book
was complete.

But a Seattle author was fascinated by by the story and decided to investigate
further. Peter Stekel set out to photograph and document the wreckage to try to
tell the story more completely . He found it, but he also found what he first thought
was a tree stump. But he was way above tree line so it couldn't be.
Closer inspection proved the object to be a frozen human corpse.


Author Peter Stekel by some wreckage at the crash site.

As Peter says on his web page:

Quote:

---

During my August, 2007, expedition to Mendel Glacier I was surprised to

find another one of Lt. Gamber's crew of students.

On Friday, February 8, 2008, the family of Cadet Ernest Glenn Munn was

notified by the US military Repatriation Department that he was the person I

found last summer. He will be returned home and buried in St. Clairsville, OH.

---

Peter has a lot more to add to the story on his web site
and on his linked blog.

Final Flight will be published next year. I'm really looking forward to
reading all of the details and see the final chapters of the story written. Peter
says the full story cannot be told until the last member of the missing crew
is found. The alpine glaciers are quickly melting away.
It may not be a long wait.

Update: Here is a video from KFSN-TV in Fresno. It has
an interview with Peter Stekel and some views of the site and evidence
collected by the recovery crew.

One final addendum: I first met Peter when we worked together as naturalists
for a school camp in the San Gabriel Mountains, north of Los Angeles 25 years
ago. We have kept in touch occasionally, but probably haven't chatted for 2-3
years. Today I received an email from a local Sierra Club chapter inviting me to
a talk by an aviation archaelogist named Pat Macha. A search got me to his web
page, and on one section of the page was a link to Peter. I emailed him
and then called him. And that led to this post.
Ain't the internet and Google Earth grand !!!