Entombed
On December 10, 1946 a Curtis Commando R5C with thirty two marines aboard was blown off course in a blinding storm and crashed into the South Tahoma Glacier on Mount Rainier. It took days to spot the wreck and it wasn't until July '47 that a ranger made the climb that no one on record had ever made to scout the scene. He reported that recovery was impossible due to the glacier moving ten inches a day causing ever changing crevasses, but the Marine Corp motto is leave no man behind and recruited the Ranger, William J. Butler, to show them. They climbed again at an altitude of 9500 feet and located all but eight of the missing men entombed in the ice. They were able to recover some personal effects and small pieces of wreckage, but to dig them out would require more time than they could safely spend. The families were informed and they agreed that no more lives should be lost and that they should remain on the mountain. This boulder was carved and a plaque erected on the West Side Road at Round Pass overlooking the glacier and until the road was closed in 1993 the families came here the last Saturday in August every year to pay their respects. Today they visit a replica at the Veterans Memorial Park in Enumclaw while the original 10,000 pound monument still watches over them here.
Entombed
On December 10, 1946 a Curtis Commando R5C with thirty two marines aboard was blown off course in a blinding storm and crashed into the South Tahoma Glacier on Mount Rainier. It took days to spot the wreck and it wasn't until July '47 that a ranger made the climb that no one on record had ever made to scout the scene. He reported that recovery was impossible due to the glacier moving ten inches a day causing ever changing crevasses, but the Marine Corp motto is leave no man behind and recruited the Ranger, William J. Butler, to show them. They climbed again at an altitude of 9500 feet and located all but eight of the missing men entombed in the ice. They were able to recover some personal effects and small pieces of wreckage, but to dig them out would require more time than they could safely spend. The families were informed and they agreed that no more lives should be lost and that they should remain on the mountain. This boulder was carved and a plaque erected on the West Side Road at Round Pass overlooking the glacier and until the road was closed in 1993 the families came here the last Saturday in August every year to pay their respects. Today they visit a replica at the Veterans Memorial Park in Enumclaw while the original 10,000 pound monument still watches over them here.