{"id":127072,"date":"2021-01-01T16:10:08","date_gmt":"2021-01-01T22:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chiefrickstone.com\/?page_id=127072"},"modified":"2026-03-25T10:49:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T15:49:26","slug":"press-releases","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.chiefrickstone.com\/?page_id=127072","title":{"rendered":"Press Releases"},"content":{"rendered":"
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***\u00a0\u00a0 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ***<\/strong><\/p>\n

March 24, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

War Department Announces Identification of another USS California <\/em>sailor in a Case Investigated by the Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Department of War announced the identification of Fireman 1st<\/sup> Class Howard Lucas Adkins of Goodwill, West Virginia, who was listed as \u201cMissing in Action\u201d at Pearl Harbor in 1941.\u00a0 F1c Adkins was born 3 December 1921 and grew up a Methodist as the third of five children to a coal miner father. \u00a0Howard enlisted into the Navy on 23 September 1940 and was received on board the USS California <\/em>on 20 November 1940, where he was assigned to the battleship\u2019s engine room. Due to its states agricultural exports, the California<\/em> was affectionately known as the \u201cPrune Barge\u201d by its crew.<\/p>\n

On the morning of 7 December 1941, the battleship USS California<\/em> (BB-44) was moored at the southernmost berth in Pearl Harbor\u2019s battleship row. Minutes into the attack, two torpedoes burst through the hull in different locations under the armored belt on the port side. Seawater quickly rushed in and mixed with fuel oil, which caused equipment issues and power failures. After this, a bomb exploded off the port bow. She began to go down by the bow. Her crew counter flooded which minimized her list. Another bomb hit, this time on the upper deck. It got through to the second deck and started a fire. By sheer determination, her crew managed to get power restored. Burning fuel oil approached the ship, and she was ordered abandoned. When the attack was over, 98 men from the California had been killed. Out of the 15 Medals of Honor that were awarded from Pearl Harbor, four of them were awarded to men from the USS California.<\/em><\/p>\n

F1c Adkins was originally listed as a survivor of the attack and his family was notified that he was safe.\u00a0 Later, F1c Adkins could not be found and his body could not be identified causing him to be listed as \u201cMissing in Action.\u201d<\/p>\n

While at the Department of Defense (DoD) on December 7, 2011, retired Police Chief Rick Stone prepared reports on all of the California\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0MIA\u2019s using the Random Incident Statistical Correlation (RISC) System which he had created as a member of the Dallas Police Department.\u00a0 RISC listed Howard as a Most Likely Match to multiple \u201cUnknowns” buried the Punchbowl Cemetery in Honolulu, Hawaii.<\/p>\n

In February 2018, six years after Chief Stone recommended the USS California<\/em>\u00a0Unknowns be exhumed and identified, the Department of Defense decided to act on Chief Stone’s recommendations and began disinterring all of the USS California\u2019s <\/em>“Unknowns”.<\/p>\n

F1c Adkins was recovered from a site in the Punchbowl Cemetery indicated by Chief Stone\u2019s research in 2011 His identification by the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory was officially announced by the War Department on 24 March 2026, over fourteen years after Chief Stone’s original report was submitted.<\/p>\n

Chief Stone stated: \u201cHoward turned twenty years of age only four days before his death.\u00a0 Imagine the enormous relief his family in West Virginia must have felt when originally informed that he had survived the Japanese attack\u2026and the crushing grief and confusion they have endured for almost eighty-five years after learning he was actually missing and presumed dead.\u00a0 Attention citizens of Mercer County, West Virginia; that little red headed boy of Tom and Beulah Adkins is finally coming home.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation is a non-profit, 501 c 3, private foundation located in Glen Rose, Texas.\u00a0 For more information on this case or the Foundation\u2019s activities, visit the website at www.ChiefRickStone.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Thanks goes out to all who worked on this case, including the staff at the National Archives and the FOIA analysts in the Office of the Secretary of War who helped acquire research documents for the investigation.\u00a0 And, of course, all who provided financial support for our Foundation\u2019s activities.<\/p>\n

NOTE TO MEDIA:\u00a0For more information, please contact the public affairs volunteer of the Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation via email to <\/strong>Foundation@ChiefRickStone.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The Foundation investigation referenced in this release was not accomplished in partnership with the Defense POW\/MIA Accounting Agency.<\/p>\n

If you have an interest in helping locate, identify, and return missing American Servicemen and Service Women to their families, PLEASE<\/strong> consider making a donation to support our research and investigation activities.<\/p>\n

ANY amount goes a long way to fund our efforts!\u00a0 \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

YOUR SUPPORT IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

***\u00a0\u00a0 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ***<\/strong><\/p>\n

March 12, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

War Department Announces Identification of a Sailor Missing From Pearl Harbor in a Case Investigated by the Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Department of War announced the identification of Seaman 1st<\/sup> Class Clyde Clifton McMeans of Karnes City, Texas, who was listed as \u201cMissing in Action\u201d at Pearl Harbor in 1941.\u00a0 S1c McMeans was born 30 April 1915 and raised on a farm before graduating from Banquette High School in 1935.\u00a0 Clyde enlisted into the Navy on 10 October 1940 in Houston, Texas and was received on board the USS California <\/em>on 24 November 1940.\u00a0 He was training to be a \u201cGunner\u2019s Mate\u201d on the California.<\/em><\/p>\n

On the morning of 7 December 1941, the battleship USS California<\/em> (BB-44) was moored at the southernmost berth in Pearl Harbor\u2019s battleship row. Minutes into the attack, two torpedoes burst through the hull in different locations under the armored belt on the port side. Seawater quickly rushed in and mixed with fuel oil, which caused equipment issues and power failures. After this, a bomb exploded off the port bow. She began to go down by the bow. Her crew counter flooded which minimized her list. Another bomb hit, this time on the upper deck. It got through to the second deck and started a fire. By sheer determination, her crew managed to get power restored. Burning fuel oil approached the ship, and she was ordered abandoned. When the attack was over, 98 men from the California had been killed. Out of the 15 Medals of Honor that were awarded from Pearl Harbor, four of them were awarded to men from the USS California.<\/em>\u00a0 S1c McMeans body could not be identified after the attack and he was listed as \u201cMissing in Action.\u201d<\/p>\n

While at the Department of Defense (DoD) on December 7, 2011, retired Police Chief Rick Stone prepared reports on all of the California\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0MIA\u2019s using the Random Incident Statistical Correlation (RISC) System which he had created as a member of the Dallas Police Department.\u00a0 RISC listed Clyde as a Most Likely Match to multiple \u201cUnknowns” buried the Punchbowl Cemetery in Honolulu, Hawaii.<\/p>\n

In February 2018, six years after Chief Stone recommended the USS California<\/em>\u00a0Unknowns be exhumed and identified, the Department of Defense decided to act on Chief Stone’s recommendations and began disinterring all of the USS California\u2019s <\/em>“Unknowns”.<\/p>\n

In March and July 2022, S1c McMeans\u2019 family requested investigators from the Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation re-open his case and new information was acquired which allowed the Foundation to ultimately narrow the list of \u201cMost Likely Matches\u201d to S1c McMeans to only one \u201cUnknown\u201d buried in the Punchbowl. This information was offered to the Defense POW\/MIA Accounting Agency specifying which \u201cUnknown\u201d could be identified as S1c McMeans.<\/p>\n

S1c McMeans was recovered from a site in the Punchbowl Cemetery indicated by Chief Stone\u2019s research in 2011 and confirmed in 2022.\u00a0 His identification by the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory was officially announced by the War Department on 10 March 2026, over fourteen years after Chief Stone’s original report was submitted.<\/p>\n

Chief Stone stated: \u201cOur investigators found documents buried in the archives indicating Clyde had a dental \u201cmalocclusion\u201d and a previously broken nose resulting in a \u201cdeviated septum to the left.\u201d\u00a0 When these small but important clues were added to the Foundation\u2019s RISC System analysis, Clyde became a \u201cslam dunk\u201d identification in less than a minute.\u00a0 Almost eighty-five years after your sacrifice Clyde, we join the entire country in finally welcoming you home to Texas.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation is a non-profit, 501 c 3, private foundation located in Glen Rose, Texas.\u00a0 For more information on this case or the Foundation\u2019s activities, visit the website at www.ChiefRickStone.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Thanks goes out to all who worked on this case, including the staff at the National Archives and the FOIA analysts in the Office of the Secretary of War who helped acquire research documents for the investigation.\u00a0 And, of course, all who provided financial support for our Foundation\u2019s activities.<\/p>\n

NOTE TO MEDIA:\u00a0For more information, please contact the public affairs volunteer of the Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation via email to <\/strong>Foundation@ChiefRickStone.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The Foundation investigation referenced in this release was not accomplished in partnership with the Defense POW\/MIA Accounting Agency.<\/p>\n

If you have an interest in helping locate, identify, and return missing American Servicemen and Service Women to their families, PLEASE<\/strong> consider making a donation to support our research and investigation activities.<\/p>\n

ANY amount goes a long way to fund our efforts!\u00a0 \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

YOUR SUPPORT IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0***\u00a0\u00a0 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ***<\/strong><\/p>\n

December 11, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE ARMED FORCES MEDICAL EXAMINER SYSTEM ANNOUNCES THE IDENTIFICATION OF ALL 52 MISSING AMERICAN SERVICE MEN IN AN ALASKAN PLANE CRASH INVESTIGATION INITIATED BY CHIEF RICK STONE<\/strong><\/p>\n

On June 13, 2012 at 8:13 am, Retired Police Chief Rick Stone responded to a phone call from the front office switchboard at the now defunct Joint POW\/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) in Honolulu, Hawaii.\u00a0 \u00a0The call from an Air Force Lieutenant Colonel in Alaska who wanted to report the discovery of very old aircraft wreckage on a remote glacier.<\/p>\n

Members of the Alaska Air National Guard had found an apparent crash site four days earlier near Mount Gannett on the Colony Glacier about 30 miles from Elmendorf Air Force Base, right outside Anchorage.\u00a0 In the debris were personal effects, including a dog tag for Captain Kenneth J. Duvall, and human remains.<\/p>\n

Chief Stone immediately alerted his entire staff at the World War II Research and Investigations Branch of JPAC to begin researching aircraft crashes in this area on a priority basis.\u00a0 \u00a0Within minutes, Chief Stone correlated Captain Duvall\u2019s dog tags to a \u201cMissing in Action\u201d (MIA) unresolved casualty listed in JPAC records as the pilot of a C-124A Globemaster when it crashed on 22 November 1952.\u00a0 The research also indicated that none of the 52 casualties reported on board were ever recovered.<\/p>\n

There were also many mysteries associated with the crash.<\/p>\n

The location of the crash site on Colony Glacier provided by the Lieutenant Colonel was determined be approximately 14 miles from where the plane was reported by the Air Force to have been found and then lost in the ice and snow shortly after the crash in 1952.<\/p>\n

A military identification card was found which did not belong to anyone on board the aircraft.\u00a0 PVT Gene Reiff was NOT listed on the flight manifest of the Globemaster when it took off from McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Washington at 1530 hours for a projected seven hour and three minute flight to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska.<\/p>\n

The C-124A Globemaster was the largest cargo plane in the American air fleet at the time.\u00a0 It was used extensively to transport nuclear weapons and was designed to transport a tank, bulldozer or 200 soldiers.\u00a0 On this particular flight there was about 30,000 pounds of cargo that was not listed on the manifest but there was no report of missing nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

And to make matters even more mysterious, this was not just a flight containing normal American service members.\u00a0 The co-pilot was reportedly a relative of former Vice President Dick Cheney.\u00a0 There was also the husband of a famous actress, Penny Singleton, on board as a passenger.<\/p>\n

One name on the passenger manifest that caught Chief Stone’s eye was Colonel Eugene Smith.\u00a0 \u00a0Colonel Smith was famous in law enforcement circles as an Air Force Intelligence Investigator who helped solve the famous Hesse Crown Jewelry Theft Case pertaining to the looting of stolen German treasures at the end of WWII.\u00a0 The treasure included packets of rings, coins, tiaras, necklaces, loose diamonds, and other jewels which were estimated to be worth some $2.5 million in 1945 (roughly $312 million today). Only $1 million dollars’ worth of jewels was recovered from the $2.5 million that was taken during the theft.\u00a0 Although today the case is considered closed, over half of the Hesse Crown Jewels are still missing and have never been recovered.<\/p>\n

The Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation has continued to investigate the cases of all 52 passengers and crew of the ill-fated Globemaster.\u00a0 Foundation researchers have provided comprehensive reports to the families of many of the missing at absolutely no cost and helped solve many of the original mysteries associated with the crash.<\/p>\n

The final two of the flight\u2019s officially listed 52 passengers and crew have now been recovered by the Air Force and identified by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System.\u00a0 The latest identifications were of crew members Airman 2nd<\/sup> Class James McMann and Captain Jerome Goebel.<\/p>\n

Much of the effort has been detailed on the Foundation’s podcasts of “NO HOME FOR HEROES”<\/strong> including:<\/p>\n

EPISODES 39 and 40:\u00a0 <\/strong>FINDING “OLD SHAKY” BURIED IN A GLACIER WITH 52 MIA’S ABOARD<\/em><\/strong><\/a> and;<\/p>\n

EPISODE 84: \u00a0<\/strong>THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF PASSENGER 53 : The case of PVT Gene Reiff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation is a non-profit, 501 c 3, private foundation located in Glen Rose, Texas.\u00a0 For more information on this case or the Foundation\u2019s activities, visit the website at www.ChiefRickStone.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Chief Stone stated \u201cOn that June morning thirteen years ago, I was able to somehow beg, plead, and coerce a very reluctant JPAC command into sending a recovery mission to the glacier.\u00a0 The Air Force has done the same annually since 2012, even after JPAC was disbanded due to media attention directed towards what Congressional investigations termed “acutely dysfunctional” at the command level.\u00a0 Welcome home men\u2026mission accomplished!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Thanks goes out to all who worked on this case, including the staff at the National Archives and the FOIA analysts in the Office of the Secretary of Defense who helped acquire research documents for the investigation.\u00a0 And, of course, all who provided financial support for our Foundation\u2019s activities.<\/p>\n

The Foundation investigations referenced in this release was not accomplished in partnership with the Defense POW\/MIA Accounting Agency.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

***\u00a0\u00a0 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ***<\/strong><\/p>\n

December 2, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n

Department of Defense Announces Another Pearl Harbor MIA Identification From a Case Investigated by the Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Private First Class Willard Carleton Orr <\/strong>was born in Bangor, Maine and was known as \u201cCarleton\u201d to his family and friends.\u00a0 \u00a0He graduated from Bangor High School in 1939 where he participated in the Debate Club, the Latin Club and the Honor Society.\u00a0 Carleton enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps after high school and trained as a cook.\u00a0 PFC Orr was assigned to the Army Air Corps\u2019 Headquarters Squadron; 17th Air Base Group.<\/p>\n

On the morning of 7 December 1941, PFC Orr was performing his duties as the head cook at the Hickam Field Mess Hall preparing breakfast when Japanese bombs began to fall on the building.\u00a0 After the attack, PFC Orr’s body could not be identified.<\/p>\n

It was not until 2022 that a long forgotten Hawaiian cemetery (Schofield Barracks Post Cemetery) was identified by researchers from the Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation as a possible initial burial location for the Army dead from the attack on Pearl Harbor.\u00a0 Foundation investigators located PFC Orr\u2019s records which specifically noted that he had been buried there.\u00a0 The Foundation prepared reports on all of the “Unknowns” from Schofield Barracks using the Random Incident Statistical Correlation (RISC) System, which retired Police Chief Rick Stone had created as a member of the Dallas Police Department.<\/p>\n

RISC listed PFC Orr as a Most Likely Match to only one \u201cUnknown\u201d<\/u> from Schofield that was later buried the Punchbowl Cemetery in Honolulu, Hawaii.\u00a0 The Foundation’s case investigation was offered to the Defense POW\/MIA Accounting Agency.<\/p>\n

PFC Orr was recovered from the site in the Punchbowl indicated by the Foundation\u2019s research.\u00a0 His identification by the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory was announced on December 2, 2025.<\/p>\n

Chief Stone stated: \u201cWe are just five days away from the 84th<\/sup> anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor and Carleton\u2019s death.\u00a0 He was a long, long way from his hometown in Bangor, Maine when his life was taken at only 21 years old.\u00a0 Carleton spent all those years without his name on an \u201cUnknown\u201d headstone and his family wondering what happened to him on that fateful morning in Hawaii.\u00a0 We did not forget you Carleton and are happy that we may have played some small roll in finally bringing you home<\/em>!\u201d\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

The Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation is a non-profit, 501 c 3, private foundation located in Glen Rose, Texas.\u00a0 For more information on this case or the Foundation\u2019s activities, visit the website at www.ChiefRickStone.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Thanks goes out to all who worked on this case, including the staff at the National Archives and the FOIA analysts in the Office of the Secretary of Defense who helped acquire research documents for the investigation.\u00a0 And, of course, all who provided financial support for our Foundation\u2019s activities.<\/p>\n

The Foundation investigation referenced in this release was not accomplished in partnership with the Defense POW\/MIA Accounting Agency.<\/p>\n

NOTE TO MEDIA:\u00a0For more information, please contact the public affairs volunteer of the Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation via email to <\/strong>Foundation@ChiefRickStone.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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*** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***<\/strong><\/div>\n
October 29, 2025<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Department of Defense Announces Another Pearl Harbor MIA<\/strong>
\nIdentification From a Case Investigated by the Chief Rick Stone and<\/strong>
\nFamily Charitable Foundation<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In one of its last actions before the 2025 government shut down, the Department of Defense announced the identification of Seaman 1st Class Wayne Edward Newton, who was listed as \u201cMissing in Action\u201d at Pearl Harbor in 1941. S1c Newton was born 7 May 1919 in Terre Haute, Indiana. Wayne was the typical \u201cAll-American\u201d boy of the era, playing on his high school football team while he learned a trade in the school print shop. After school, Wayne had a paper route delivering the local newspaper.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Wayne enlisted into the Navy on 12 April 1938 in Indianapolis, Indiana and was received on board the USS California on 23 March 1940 and assigned to Vice Admiral William Pye\u2019s \u201cFlag Allowance\u201d staff.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
On the morning of 7 December 1941, the battleship USS California (BB-44) was moored at the southernmost berth in Pearl Harbor\u2019s battleship row. Minutes into the attack, two torpedoes burst through the hull in different locations under the armored belt on the port side. Seawater quickly rushed in and mixed with fuel oil, which caused equipment issues and power failures. After this, a bomb exploded off the port bow. She began to go down by the bow. Her crew counter flooded which minimized her list. Another bomb hit, this time on the upper deck. It got through to the second deck and started a fire. By sheer determination, her crew managed to get power restored. Burning fuel oil approached the ship, and she was ordered abandoned. When the attack was over, 98 men from the California had been killed. Out of the 15 Medals of Honor that were awarded from Pearl Harbor, four of them were awarded to men from the USS California. S1c Newton\u2019s body could not be identified after the attack and he was listed as \u201cMissing in Action.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
While at the Department of Defense (DoD) on December 7, 2011, retired Police Chief Rick Stone prepared reports on all of the California\u2019s MIA\u2019s using the Random Incident Statistical Correlation (RISC) System which he had created as a member of the Dallas Police Department. RISC listed Wayne as a Most Likely Match to only three \u201cUnknowns” buried the Punchbowl Cemetery in Honolulu, Hawaii.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In February 2018, six years after Chief Stone recommended the USS
\nCalifornia Unknowns be exhumed and identified, the Department of Defense decided to act on Chief Stone’s recommendations and began disinterring all of the USS California\u2019s “Unknowns”.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In February 2022, S1c Newton\u2019s family requested investigators from the Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation re-open his case and new information was offered to the Defense POW\/MIA Accounting Agency specifying which \u201cUnknown\u201d could be identified as S1c Newton. S1c Newton was recovered from a burial site in the Punchbowl Cemetery indicated by Chief Stone\u2019s research in 2011. His identification by the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory was officially announced by the DoD on 9 October 2025, over thirteen years after Chief Stone’s original report was submitted.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Chief Stone stated: \u201cIronically, Wayne\u2019s return home to his family is again delayed as the government has stalled out. Wayne couldn\u2019t be identified in 1941 and the government didn\u2019t\u2019 act on recommendations that would have led to his identification in 2011. Now, 2026 approaches, seventy-five years after his death defending our country, and William and Ethel Newton\u2019s little boy is forced to wait a little longer for his return to Indiana. Hang tough, Wayne, we did not forget you and we didn\u2019t let others forget you either. It won\u2019t be long now\u2026we hope!\u201d<\/div>\n
\n

 <\/p>\n

The Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation is a non-profit, 501 c 3, private foundation located in Glen Rose, Texas. For more information on this case or the Foundation\u2019s activities, visit the website at www.ChiefRickStone.com<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Thanks goes out to all who worked on this case, including the staff at the National Archives and the FOIA analysts in the Office of the Secretary of Defense who helped acquire research documents for the investigation. And, of course, all who provided financial support for our Foundation\u2019s activities.<\/div>\n
NOTE TO MEDIA: For more information, please contact the public affairs volunteer of the Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation via email to Foundation@ChiefRickStone.com<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The Foundation investigation referenced in this release was not accomplished in partnership with the Defense POW\/MIA Accounting Agency.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
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*** <\/b> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/b> ***<\/b><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/b><\/div>\n
October 13, 2025 <\/b><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/b><\/div>\n
Department of Defense Announces the First Identification of an Okinawa MIA Whose Case was Investigated by the Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation <\/b><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/b><\/div>\n
Platoon Sergeant Harold Morton Weaver <\/b> was born in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio to Lewis Rollin Weaver and Marie Bertha Patterson Weaver. A veteran of the Battle on Guadalcanal, he was a member of L Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines when he was killed by multiple shrapnel wounds near Hill 60 on Okinawa on 4 May 1945. The Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation initiated a project in 2023 to analyze all of the “Unknowns” from the Battle of Okinawa. In June 2024, PLSGT Weaver’s family contacted the Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation for a comprehensive “Family Report” on his case. Subsequent investigations by Foundation researchers were able to determine that PLSGT Weaver was not a “Most Likely Match” to any “Unknown” from the Battle of Okinawa buried in the Punchbowl Cemetery or the Manila American Cemetery. Foundation investigators concluded that the body of PLSGT Weaver and three company mates who were also killed on that date were not recovered after the battle and remained in an undiscovered location on Okinawa. It was later learned that PLSGT Weaver’s remains had been recovered by Japanese workers during the construction of a high school on Okinawa on 26 May 2014 and turned over to the Defense POW\/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). After almost ten years, DPAA announced his identification by DNA on 1 October 2025.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Chief Stone stated: \u201cSometimes cases are solved not by inclusion but by exclusion. Our investigators concluded that Platoon Sergeant Weaver was not a most likely match to any \u201cUnknowns\u201d recovered from the Battle of Okinawa and therefore, by reason of exclusion, must be one of over a hundred casualties whose bodies were not recovered from the fields of battle on Okinawa. Unknown to our team, Platoon Sergeant Weaver <\/i>‘s remains had been recovered on Okinawa by Japanese construction workers in 2014 and had sat on a shelf at DPAA<\/i>‘s laboratory for ten years awaiting analysis and DNA identification. Welcome home Platoon Sergeant Weaver\u2026the first of many to come.\u201d <\/i><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
The Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation is a non-profit, 501 c 3, private foundation located in Glen Rose, Texas. For more information on this case or the Foundation’s activities, visit the website at www.ChiefRickStone.com<\/a><\/u><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Thanks goes out to all who worked on this case, including the staff at the National Archives and the FOIA analysts in the Office of the Secretary of Defense who helped acquire research documents for the investigation. And, of course, all who provided financial support for our Foundation <\/u>‘s activities.<\/u><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The Foundation investigation referenced in this release was not accomplished in partnership with the Defense POW\/MIA Accounting Agency. <\/u><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/u><\/div>\n
NOTE TO MEDIA: <\/b> For more information, please contact the public affairs volunteer of the Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation via email to <\/b>Foundation@ChiefRickStone.com<\/a><\/u><\/b><\/div>\n
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\u00a0***\u00a0\u00a0 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ***<\/strong><\/p>\n

September 10, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE ARMED FORCES MEDICAL EXAMINER SYSTEM ANNOUNCES THE 50th<\/sup> IDENTIFICATION OF MISSING AMERICAN SERVICE MEN IN A 1952 ALASKAN PLANE CRASH INVESTIGATED BY CHIEF RICK STONE<\/strong><\/p>\n

On June 13, 2012 at 8:13 am, Retired Police Chief Rick Stone responded to a phone call from the front office switchboard at the now defunct Joint POW\/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) in Honolulu, Hawaii.\u00a0 \u00a0The clerk forwarded Chief Stone a phone call from an Air Force Lieutenant Colonel in Alaska who wanted to report the discovery of very old aircraft wreckage on a remote glacier.<\/p>\n

It was a call that would change the lives of dozens of families of American heroes listed as “Missing in Action.”<\/p>\n

Members of the Alaska Air National Guard had found an apparent crash site four days earlier near Mount Gannett on the Colony Glacier about 30 miles from Elmendorf Air Force Base, right outside Anchorage.\u00a0 In the debris were personal effects, including a dog tag for Captain Kenneth J. Duvall, and human remains.<\/p>\n

Chief Stone immediately alerted his entire staff at the World War II Research and Investigations Branch of JPAC to begin researching aircraft crashes in this area on a priority basis.\u00a0 \u00a0Within minutes, Chief Stone correlated Captain Duvall\u2019s dog tags to a \u201cMissing in Action\u201d (MIA) unresolved casualty listed in JPAC records as the pilot of a C-124A Globemaster when it crashed on 22 November 1952.\u00a0 The research also indicated that none of the 52 casualties reported on board were ever recovered.<\/p>\n

There were also many mysteries associated with the crash.<\/p>\n

The location of the crash site on Colony Glacier provided by the Lieutenant Colonel was determined be approximately 14 miles from where the plane was reported by the Air Force to have been found and then lost in the ice and snow shortly after the crash in 1952.<\/p>\n

A military identification card was found which did not belong to anyone on board the aircraft.\u00a0 PVT Gene Reiff was NOT listed on the flight manifest of the Globemaster when it took off from McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Washington at 1530 hours for a projected seven hour and three minute flight to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska.<\/p>\n

The C-124A Globemaster was the largest cargo plane in the American air fleet at the time.\u00a0 It was used extensively to transport nuclear weapons and was designed to transport a tank, bulldozer or 200 soldiers.\u00a0 On this particular flight there was about 30,000 pounds of cargo that was not listed on the manifest but there was no report of missing nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

And to make matters even more mysterious, this was not just a flight containing normal American service members.\u00a0 The co-pilot was reportedly a relative of former Vice President Dick Cheney.\u00a0 There was also the husband of a famous actress, Penny Singleton, on board as a passenger.<\/p>\n

But the one name on the passenger manifest that caught Chief Stone’s eye was Colonel Eugene Smith.\u00a0 \u00a0Colonel Smith was famous in law enforcement circles as an Air Force Intelligence Investigator who helped solve the famous Hesse Crown Jewelry Theft Case pertaining to the looting of stolen German treasures at the end of WWII.\u00a0 The treasure included packets of rings, coins, tiaras, necklaces, loose diamonds, and other jewels which were estimated to be worth some $2.5 million in 1945 (roughly $312 million today). Only $1 million dollars’ worth of jewels was recovered from the $2.5 million that was taken during the theft.\u00a0 Although today the case is considered closed, over half of the Hesse Crown Jewels are still missing and have never been recovered.<\/p>\n

On that June morning thirteen years ago, Chief Stone was able to somehow beg, plead, and coerce a very reluctant JPAC command into sending a recovery mission to the glacier.\u00a0 The Air Force has done the same annually since 2012, even after JPAC was disbanded due to media attention directed towards what Congressional investigations correctly termed “acutely dysfunctional” management.<\/p>\n

The Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation has continued to investigate the cases of all 52 passengers and crew of the ill-fated Globemaster.\u00a0 Foundation researchers have provided comprehensive reports to the families of many of the missing at absolutely no cost and helped solve many of the original mysteries associated with the crash.<\/p>\n

Today, the 50 of the flight\u2019s officially listed 52 passengers and crew have been recovered by the Air Force and identified by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System.\u00a0 The latest identification was of crew member, Airman 3rd<\/sup> Class James Ronald Kimball.<\/p>\n

Much of the effort has been detailed on the Foundation’s podcasts of “NO HOME FOR HEROES”<\/strong> including:<\/p>\n

EPISODES 39 and 40:\u00a0 <\/strong>FINDING “OLD SHAKY” BURIED IN A GLACIER WITH 52 MIA’S ABOARD<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

and<\/p>\n

EPISODE 84: \u00a0<\/strong>THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF PASSENGER 53 : The case of PVT Gene Reiff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

NOTE TO MEDIA: For more information, please contact the public affairs volunteer of the Chief Rick Stone and Family Charitable Foundation via any link at <\/strong>www.ChiefRickStone.com<\/strong><\/a> \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cNext time Rick, just write a memo.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

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