Even though the stone says US Marine Corps two of these men were United States Army per the Dept of Veteran Affairs Grave Site Locator burial records.
sources for Birth dates:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/3363010/donald-r-myrick
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/3356010/robert-dale-laduke
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/836702/bennie-r-jestis
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8548321/fred-f.-holcombe
Niles, CA Marine Corps Transport Crash:
Oakland (AP) -- Seventy servicemen with trucks, jeeps and a bulldozer worked at the grim task today of bringing out the bodies of 38 men who died when a Marine Corps transport plane crashed
yesterday on a fog-shrouded ridge southeast of here.
Military authorities refused comment on cause of the tragedy but civil aeronautics administration spokesmen indicated the plane was off course and below regulation altitude when it crashed and burned in the fog.
The big marine plane was just 21 miles, 9 minutes
from a landing at Alameda naval air station on a flight from El Toro and Camp Pendleton marine bases in Southern California.
The RD5, marine equivalent of the DC4, carried five crewmen. The others, clad in dungares, were being transferred to Treasure Island Navy base for reassignment. One passenger was from El Toro; the others from Camp Pendleton.
The pilot was Maj. ALEXANDER WATSON, 32, of Santa Ana, Calif., a Silver Star winner in the Korean war.
Major WATSON'S last report was at 1:42 p.m., notifying Oakland municipal airport he was starting
an approach toward the nearby naval air station.
The fog and mist was so heavy helicopters failed for hours to find the wreckage 1,300 feet up in the dense brush country 3 1/2 miles from Niles on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay.
Rancher Ray Stephens narrowed the hunt for the missing marine plane when he reported hearing a
"terrific crash." Noise from the low flying plane caused him to run outside his house. He said:
"About two seconds after I saw it and thought it was going to hit the hill opposite me I heard a terrific crash."
Rescue parties had slow going over the rain-slick hills and the brush was so thick that no place could be found to land helicopters.
The six men from El Toro were identified quickly but the 12th Naval District predicted that identifying the others would take some time.
They had their service records with them.
The passengers were part of a 173-man group being sent to Treasure Island. The others arrived safely.