Lt. John Pritchard was recently inducted into the Hall of Heroes at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. The World War II pilot, who perished in 1942, graduated from the institution in 1938.
According to Military Times, Pritchard served the Coast Guard on assignments in Greenland. He was doing war-time patrols on a cutter of the coast of the nation when a U.S. Air Force B-17 crashed on an icy tundra. The crew lived but were stranded. Pritchard successfully found the group and rescued two passengers, bringing them back to his ship. The following day, he and a colleague volunteered to return for the remaining stranded soldiers. It was during this second trip that the aircraft exploded shortly after takeoff, killing all three men inside.
A week before this fatal journey, Pritchard had successfully saved members of the Royal Canadian Air Force from an icy death during a dangerous mission. The award ceremony on Friday, Nov. 7, primarily focused on this outstanding accomplishment, noted Military Times. The late servicemember's sister attended the tribute, which included Pritchard's name being added to a wall of honorable Coast Guard members.
According to Fox News, this recognition of Pritchard's heroism came about after an initiative was launched to recover the aircraft he died in, which is currently in a glacier. In 2010, the Coast Guard, in collaboration with a private contractor, picked up signals on radar of what they thought was the plane wreck and were able to take pictures through ice to confirm the location of the aircraft. When crews returned to the glacier this summer, however, they were not able to find any signs of the plane. Officials, while discouraged, have not given up on someday bringing the remains home.
"It's safe to say the case is not closed," Cmdr. Brian Glander, the chief of the Office of Aviation Forces at Coast Guard headquarters, told Fox News.