Staff Sgt. James Herbert Ray Jr., 36, of East Butler was a passenger on a USAF C-124 Globesmaster that crashed near Anchorage, Alaska, on Nov. 22, 1952, killing all 52 people aboard. The wreckage was located shortly after but was soon lost to snow and ice and remained lost for 60 years.

In 2012, melting glacial ice exposed enough of the wreckage to be spotted by a passing Blackhawk helicopter on a training mission. Since then, 17 groups of remains have been identified through DNA testing, including Sgt. Ray's.

Ray was born on Feb. 18, 1916, in East Butler, the son of James H. Ray Sr. and Mary Lamison Ray.

He later moved with his family to Nichola, a coal mining town, now long abandoned, in Armstrong County near Worthington. He was drafted into the army in February 1942 and assigned to the then U.S. Army Air Corp, which shortly became the U.S. Army Air Force.

Following World War II, he returned to his job as a machinist at the Cooper-Bessemer Co., Grove City. In 1947, he re-enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, by then a separate military service.

He reported for duty at the Brookley Air Force Base in Mobile, Ala., where he met his future wife, Eva Hare. They were married early in 1952.

As in World War II, his new Air Force service consisted primarily of overseeing the loading, securing and unloading of air cargo. He had spent much of World War II in the Azores with the Air Transport Command and flying on cargo planes into various places in the European Theater.

In his new role, he worked with cargo going to the Berlin Airlift, regularly flying into Berlin from the beginning of the airlift in June 1948 until the airlift's conclusion on Sept. 30, 1949.

Ray is survived by his daughter, Jamie Swift of Pensacola, Fla., who was born after his death; his sisters, Martha Rider Ellenberger and Shirley Hardles; and his brothers, George, Perry, Richard and Donald.

His wife died in 1966. Others close to him who have passed include his parents; his sisters, Sara Ellenberger, Elsie Couch and Bernice Jean Maley; and his brothers, Wilbert, William and Adam.

Ray — The friends of Staff Sgt. James Herbert Ray Jr. who passed away Saturday, Nov. 22, 1952, will be received from 9 a.m. until time of service at 11 a.m. Saturday at theF. Duane Snyder Funeral Home, 119 Bear St., Worthington. A graveside service with military honors will follow at the Worthington Presbyterian Cemetery with the USAF Honor Guard participating.For more information, please visit www.snydercrissman.com.