Remains of a 1952 military plane crash victim have been identified as those of a man with family in Missouri. Army Private Robert Dale Card, originally of Kansas, was among 52 service members killed when their C-124 Globemaster crashed into Mount Gannett in Alaska. The Past Conflict Repatriations Branch has confirmed to Missourinet that the remains have been identified as Card’s. The organization is under the Army Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Operation Center (CMAOC) at the Army Human Resources Command (HRC) in Fort Knox, Kentucky.
A wheel from the C-124 Globemaster; part of the wreckage that gradually is exposed as the Colony Glacier melts. (Photos courtesy; U.S. Air Force photos/Tech. Sgt. John S. Gordinier)
The plane’s debris was hidden with snow and vanished soon after the 1952 accident, but was rediscovered in 2012. It had been carried some 16 kilometers from the crash site by the Colony Glacier.
Card has family in Springfield, including his niece Tonya Card.
“I think they all deserve to be brought home, whatever can be found. It’s nice for the families to have something to bury,” says Card. “It’s nice for the relatives that continue living to know a little bit about their family tree. My kids have enjoyed hearing about it and I have pieces of the plane in pictures. They’ve gotten to take those to school and take about it to their friends. Preservation is important.”
She says her father, Norman, was 17 when his brother died. Card says he has shares more memories about Robert since the rediscovery of the plane’s wreckage.
He describes Robert as being a very quiet and hard-working guy with a good sense of humor.
“Dad has often said that he (Robert) and I look alike. We kind of have the same eyes and mouth. Every now and then he’ll comment that we have a similar expression,” says Card.
Norman Card, who is a Korean War veteran, joined the Marines a year after his brother’s death.
Card says a funeral service will take place early next year, after other remains from the wreckage still being identified are released.
Efforts to recover remains continue each year with a goal of finding remains from all 52 men aboard that plane on November 22, 1952.
