Michigan Man’s Remains Among Those Still Unidentified in 1952 Plane Crash

Remains from two more of the men that died in an Korean War-era military plane crash in Alaska have been identified so they can be returned to families for burial, but one man from Michigan still hasn’t been found.

The remains identified belong to Captain Walter Perrin Tribble of Champaign, Illinois, and Airman 2nd Class Bernis F. White of Fordyce, Arkansas. Their families will be offered burial will full military honors.

Those men and 50 others died when a C-124 Globemaster crashed into Mount Gannett in Alaska on November 22, 1952. The wreckage and their remains were lost until they were spotted in 2012, some 16 kilometers from the crash site where they had been carried by the Colony Glacier.

Two men from Michigan were on that plane: Captain William Coombs was from Detroit and Marine Major Earl J. Stearms was born in Michigan but had a home in New York at the time of the crash.

Stearns was among those men for whom remains were identified and returned to families last year.