Local Air Force Pilot Killed in 1952 Plane Crash

by Jonathan Weaver

More than six decades ago, Richard Ray’s brother was killed in a military plane crash in Alaska.

Richard, 80 of Indiana, Pa., - a former English professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania - was a radioman aboard a U.S. Navy ship in Norfolk, Va. when he found out his brother - U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. James “Herb” H. Ray, Jr., who was raised in the small mining town of Nicola (now Worthington) – was aboard a C-124 Globemaster that crashed.

“Initially, it’s pretty traumatic, but as the years go by, I never thought the wreckage would be found,” Richard said.

But, remains of that plane – which crashed November 22, 1952 in the stone face of Mount Gannett in Alaska – were recovered in 2012, and word of Ray’s remains being discovered were officially reported by the Department of Defense yesterday.

According to the Department of Defense, on June 9, 2012, an Alaska National Guard (AKNG) UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter crew spotted aircraft wreckage and debris while conducting a training mission over the Colony Glacier. Three days later, another AKNG team landed at the site to photograph the area and they found artifacts at the site that related to the wreckage of the C-124 Globemaster.

Recovery operations began later that month.

Richard said the news “kicks your emotions around a little bit.”

“You go year after year and nothing happens. But, enough ice had melted on a glacier to expose wreckage to a Blackhawk helicopter on a training mission,” Richard said.

Richard and his brother, Donald, (of Poland, Ohio) gave swabs of DNA from their cheek to make the positive match of the World War II soldier. Five of the brothers in the Ray family served in the military around the time of World War II.

“We didn’t have much hope that this would happen this fast, to be among the first group identified,” Richard said. “We were lucky to have his remains identified in the first 12.”

Richard recalled what happened that November in 1952 when he rejoined the service after working as a machinist at Cooper-Bessemer in Grove City.

“He was transferred from Brookley Air Force Base in Mobile, Alabama to Anchorage, Alaska. By this time, he was married and his wife (Eva Hare, who died of a heart attack in 1966) was pregnant, and he was going to Anchorage, Alaska to look for living quarters for the family when the plane ran into a mountain in the dark,” Richard said. “52 people aboard were killed.”

The plane was headed for Elmendorf Air Force Base, with 11 crewmen and 41 passengers on board. Adverse weather conditions precluded immediate recovery attempts, according to the Department of Defense.

Born February 18, 1916 in East Brady, Ray was 36 years old at the time of the plane crash.

Richard was 17 years younger than Ray and has fond memories of his brother, including Ray standing on his head on a pillow by a tree stump or walking on his hands for long distances to show off to his brothers and sisters. Ray was the third-oldest of 12 brothers and sisters

“He had a great sense of balance that none of us had,” Richard said. “He would do most anything to entertain us.”

Those killed involved ranked officials from all branches of the military, including Tonja Anderson-Dell’s grandfather, U.S. Air Force Airman Isaac Anderson, Sr.

Anderson-Dell, 43, of Tampa, Fla. has researched and sought for more than 20 years for answers about the plane crash.

“I was asking my grandmother about his death and she gave me the story. I just wanted to do some research on what happened to the plane,” Anderson-Dell said. “It was always a family story that he had died in a military plane crash, and I just wanted to find out what really happened.”

Tonja’s grandmother, the late-Dorothy Anderson, didn’t accept a flag in 1952 since she didn’t believe her husband was dead. A flag was given to the family in November 2001 – two months after Dorothy’s death.

“She never knew I was able to accomplish what she wanted to do,” Anderson-Dell said.

That feeling made Anderson-Dell want to give up, but she persisted at the urging of her father, Isaac Anderson, Jr. – who was just a year old when his father was killed.

However, military officials have not recovered any of Anderson’s remains.

“I pray –I just figure it’s not my turn yet,” Anderson-Dell said. “I still have to fight for the rest of the people.”

Anderson-Dell does have a demilitarized piece of the plane, like other families, that was set to be recycled - a calibration piece.
“It still smells like diesel fuel after 60+ years,” Anderson-Dell said.

And a letter sent by her grandfather and postmarked to Dorothy two hours before the plane crash.

Anderson-Dell stays in touch with family members of the deceased serviceman via a Facebook page devoted to the aircraft and has attended funeral services for many military soldiers in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., Georgia and Kansas.

“This has put a bond between a lot of us,” Anderson-Dell said.

Crews will continue to try and recover remains this summer while the glacier is melting.

Ray’s remains will be recovered in Hawaii by his only daughter – Jamie Swift of Pensacola, Fla., who was an infant upon the time of the plane crash - July 3.

Services for Ray will be held at Snyder-Crissman Funeral Home July 5, with burial in Worthington United Presbyterian Cemetery.

Anderson-Dell has contacted local patriot soldiers to see if they would be available whenever Ray returns to Pennsylvania.

“I can’t let him not come home without people knowing what he did for his country, that he died for,” Anderson-Dell said.

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