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Skibum, what is your real name and how long have you worked for the NPS? My dad had a long career with the NPS as a rescue ranger in several parks. Do you have any rescues in the book Death, Daring, and Disaster, (Search and rescue in the National Parks)?
Jim Gould. I've been a ranger for 16 years. . Good grief how time flies! I'm not in the book. Most of the rescues in that book were before my time. What parks did your father work at?
Jim, my dad, Jim Langford, worked at the Everglades, Tetons, Joshua Tree, and Pinnacles NM. He started in the early 50's, left the NPS in 1977 due to politics, and transferred to the Army as a civilian Range Conservationist at Fort Hunter Ligett in Monterey County. He retired in 1990.
Airman buried six decades after crash in Sierra Nevada
By Patrick Condon
Associated Press
Posted on Sat, Mar. 25, 2006
BRAINERD, Minn. - A World War II airman whose frozen body was chipped out of a glacier on the California side of the Sierra Nevada mountains last fall was laid to rest in his hometown Friday, more than six decades after the young man disappeared during a training flight.
Leo Mustonen's two nieces were among about 100 people who gathered at First Lutheran Church to say goodbye. A full military funeral followed at a cemetery overlooking the Mississippi River.
``This is one of the most unique and special days that any of us will ever be a part of,'' Pastor Andy Smith said. ``Today we are burying a small-town boy from Brainerd, Minn., who dreamed of flying.''
Mustonen was 22 when his AT-7 navigational plane disappeared after takeoff from a Sacramento airfield on Nov. 18, 1942. All four men aboard were killed in the crash.
But Mustonen's remains were not found until last year, when two mountain climbers in Kings Canyon National Park spotted an arm jutting out of the ice. Forensic scientists analyzed bones, DNA samples and the airman's teeth before declaring in February that the body was Mustonen's.
There was talk of revisiting the area to look for more wreckage or remains, but SARs and other missions kind of took up most of the time this summer. It's getting a little late in the season now, so i'm not sure if it will happen this year. Hopefully next summer. Interesting tidbit. Wreckage from a possible WWII aircraft was located in talus below Darwin Glacier over the ridge south of Mendel. Maybe he tried to jump before crashing, but did not have enough altitude for his parachute to deploy???
. Good grief how time flies! I'm not in the book. Most of the rescues in that book were before my time. What parks did your father work at?