An airman's remains were recovered from the wreckage of an Air Force Osprey that crashed this week off the coast of Japan and the seven other crew members aboard were still unaccounted for on Friday, according to the latest update from the service.
Air Force Special Operations Command said in a statement that “one set of remains has been recovered” and the other airmen on the Osprey were “duty status-whereabouts unknown,” a term used by the military when the status of missing service members, including those lost at sea, cannot be confirmed.
Search-and-rescue efforts along the southwestern coast of Japan that began Wednesday were still ongoing Friday, the command said, and have included large numbers of U.S. military personnel and Japanese government assistance.
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The deceased airman was identified as Staff Sgt. Jacob Galliher, a native of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, according to a press release from his congressman, Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass.
“Staff Sgt. Galliher represented our nation's best, enlisting in the Air Force right out of high school and committing himself to serving his country,” Neal wrote. “My thoughts and prayers are with his family, especially his mother, father, wife and two sons.”
A Facebook post from his local police department said Galliher was a 2017 high…
