The Latest: Alaska city unveils memorial to fallen Guardsmen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The Latest on an Alaska city honouring Guardsmen killed in crash after 1964 earthquake (all times local):

1:40 p.m.

Four men who died on a humanitarian mission to help rebuild an Alaska town following the second most powerful earthquake ever recorded have been honoured in the town near where they died.

The City of Valdez (val-DEEZ’), Alaska, on Saturday unveiled a memorial to the four Alaska National Guard members who died in plane crash a month after the magnitude 9.2 quake in March 1964.

The plane had just delivered then-Alaska Gov. William Egan and a team of surveyors to the port city on Alaska’s southern coast. The plane immediately turned around to deliver the adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard back to Anchorage.

The plane took off in a heavy snowstorm and crashed at full speed into Prince William Sound about a mile offshore. All four men perished.

Children and grandchildren of the four men killed were on hand for the ceremony, in which the men were recognized for giving their lives while helping the people of Valdez rebuild.

7:32 a.m.

A month after the second-largest earthquake ever devastated the community of Valdez (val-DEEZ’), Alaska, losses continued to mount.

The town had to be rebuilt, and an Alaska Air National Guard airplane delivered Alaska Gov. William Egan (EE’-gun) and a team of surveyors to the port community on Alaska’s southern coast on April 25, 1964.

The plane immediately returned to Anchorage carrying the Alaska National Guard’s adjutant general and three others.

The cargo plane took off in a heavy snowstorm, and crashed full speed into the waters of Prince William Sound three minutes after takeoff, killing everyone on board.

On Saturday, a plaque will be unveiled in Valdez to honour the four men killed in the humanitarian mission.