ORANGE PARK
Clay Today
PO Box 1209 Orange Park, FL 32073
904-264-3200

September 6th, 2001

By Doug Newton, Staff
dougnewton1@hotmail.com

For two short months, in the brief snowmelt of the arctic summer, the 39-year-old crash site is visible on the slopes of the Kronborg Glacier in eastern Greenland. The wreckage of the P2V Neptune bomber can be seen from the air from a great distance, but a closer inspection reveals more: The bodies of several U.S. Navy crewmen, members of Patrol Squadron Five (VP-5), Jacksonville Naval Air Station (NAS), remain scattered among the wreckage of the plane.

Aircraft LA-9 departed Keflavik NAS on the morning of Jan. 12, 1962 to fly a routine patrol between Iceland and the coast of Greenland. Three hours later, the Keflavik communication center issued an alert to all stations that contact with LA-9 had been lost. Search and rescue operations were begun and continued for eight days, but the plane was not found. Search efforts were terminated on Jan. 19, 1962.

In August of 1966, a geological expedition from Oxford University stumbled upon the wreckage of LA-9. Dr. Kent Brooks, a member of that expedition, wrote, "It was extremely eerie to come across the wreckage and bodies, which were partially mummified, in this remote location." In September, Brooks and the group returned from their expedition and were able to notify authorities. The Navy responded the same month, sending an icebreaker and helicopters whose mission was to clear the wreckage and recover the dead crewmembers.

Some crewmembers' remains were indeed returned to American shores. Cmdr. Norbert John Kozak, the executive officer of VP-5, was on LA-9 that day and went down with the rest of the crew. His wife, Ruth Kozak Jacob of Orange Park, remembers laying him to rest: "I buried him in Arlington National Cemetery in October of 1966," she said.

That could have been the end of Jacob's involvement, and was for many years, but last month she learned that some crewmembers' remains still lie within the wreckage of the P2V. "It was my son who found out," said Jacob. Michael Kozak, who his mom said has always been interested in knowing more about his father, had been corresponding with Robert Pettway, who had also been a member of VP-5 in 1962. Pettway had in turn been in contact with Brooks, who informed Pettway that he had revisited the crash site in 1995. Brooks wrote, "The most amazing thing to come out of this was that there were still human remains at the site, but precisely how many individuals I was not able to find out. What about the ‘burial with honors' we were informed about? I later alerted the police in Greenland to the presence of human remains at the site, but they said they didn't have the resources to investigate." The Missing Persons Group, Bureau of Naval Personnel, USN, has confirmed that human remains still exist at the site.

Now Jacob and her children are active in trying to get the remaining crewmembers returned home. "I know how it brought my soul to rest when they brought my husband back," said Jacob.

The Navy has not commented on why all the remains weren't recovered in 1966. "Maybe another storm came and they had to leave the site early," Jacob speculated, and added, "You'll never get anything out of them about that." But Cmdr. Kozak's family is only concerned with getting the crewmembers home. "We just want the rest of the men brought back," said daughter Patricia Masciantoni. "It's just the right thing to do."

The Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii, which is responsible for military recovery, is reportedly willing to schedule the recovery of these remains, but funding is, as always, an issue. A POW/MIA Casualty Conference will take place from Nov. 14-16, 2001, and the LA-9 crash is on the agenda. The Kozak family encourages citizens who wish to see LA-9's remaining crewmembers brought home to write to their elected officials. More information about this issue is available on the VP-5 Web site, http://www.vpnavy.com/vp5.html.

"January 12th, 1962 Memorial Summary Page"

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