World War II

A few years ago I read and greatly enjoyed a book by Conrad Anker entitled The Lost Explorer: Finding Mallory on Mt. Everest. Mallory went missing in 1924 and his body lay undiscovered until 1999. At the time I wondered why they took him down from the mountain after 75 years. In fact I still do. The man died doing what he loved and it would probably be hard to find a more peaceful, undisturbed place to spend eternity.

Now, in an eerily reminiscent incident, a hiker in Kings Canyon National Park found the second set of World War II-era remains located in the park in two years. The remains were found within 100 yards of one another and both were airmen. The second man is probably a member of the crew of the same plane on which 22-year-old Leo Mustonen served. His body was found in October 2005.

The flight, a training run in an AT-7 out of Mather Field in Sacramento got off course and wandered into a blizzard, crashing in the Sierra Nevadas on Mount Mendel, November 18, 1942. The body found this week was still wearing its parachute, neatly folded, the pull cord in place on his chest.

I looked up Mount Mendel. It’s isolated, windswept, and beautiful. For 65 years the as-yet-unidentified man has lain there undisturbed, just like Mallory on Everest. In both cases surviving family wanted a different kind of burial, something more formal. My father always said funerals are for the living. But the souls of Mallory and these missing airmen? Somehow I like to think they’re mountain spirits now.

WWII, AT-7, Mount Mendel, missing airman, Leo Mustonen