Frozen in Time Page 34

230 Spina lay awake: Ibid.

  230 lifted it from the ice wall: Ibid.

  231 they didn’t talk about it: Balchen, Ford, and La Farge, War below Zero, p. 96.

  231 snowed a whopping eighteen feet: Spencer, speech.

  231 “Factory indicates forward bulkhead of PBY”: Balchen, Come North with Me, p. 243.

  232 “We have had no time to make a test landing”: Ibid.

  232 Turner radioed down to Harry Spencer on the walkie-talkie: Balchen, Ford, and La Farge, War below Zero, p. 88.

  232 “like a power stall letdown on a glassy sea”: Balchen, Come North with Me, p. 243.

  233 strange absence of feeling: Balchen, Ford, and La Farge, War below Zero, p. 89.

  233 “a beautiful sight”: Ibid.

  233 “light as a bundle of rags”: Balchen, Come North with Me, p. 244.

  234 a specially built stretcher-sled: In his statement (p. 4), Spencer writes, “We transported Lt. O’Hara from our quarters to the PBY on a very ingenious stretcher ski sled” (p. 4). In Balchen’s autobiography, he writes, “I carry him to the plane in my arms, as light as a bundle of rags” (p. 244). Balchen’s statements in his autobiography have come under criticism by Taub and others, in part because Balchen describes himself as the pilot on takeoff when it is generally agreed that Dunlop flew the plane both ways. However, Tetley, in McIntosh, “Snowbound for 68 Days,” is quoted as saying, “The colonel hit upon a method. By unloading us and letting us push, he could taxi the plane. He brought it around in circles and kept it moving fast enough to keep from getting stuck.” For consistency, this account relies on the reporting of La Farge.

  235 After almost two hours of effort: Ragnarsson, US Navy PBY Catalina Units, p. 79.

  235 ran toward the blister, each one jumping at the last minute: This scene is described by La Farge in Balchen, Ford, and La Farge, War below Zero, p. 90; by Balchen in his autobiography, p. 244; and by Tetley in McIntosh, “Snowbound for 68 Days.” The only significant difference is who pulls the men inside. In Balchen’s account, the blister is manned by Sweetzer and “the radio man,” but he does not name him. Tetley also credits “the radio operator” without naming him.

  236 “Hello boys, Get on the Walkie-Talkie”: Paul Spina saved the original note and pasted it in his scrapbook.

  238 all of his fingernails had fallen off: Spina, memoir, p. 24.

  238 made them feel warmer: Ibid., p. 25.

  238 They seemed to take turns breaking down: Ibid., p. 26.

  238 a suicide pact: Ibid.

  239 “Why should someone else”: Ibid.

  239 flew into a rage: Ibid.

  239 “a bunch of weaklings”: Ibid.

  240 “the coldest look I ever seen in my life”: Ibid., p. 27.

  241 destroy that dream: Ibid.

  241 “talking about things drawn from another world”: Ibid., p. 28.

  21: CROSSED WIRES

  257 brains enough to move it: Spina, memoir, p. 28.

  258 a hit-and-miss proposition: W. W. Shen, “A History of Antipsychotic Drug Development,” Comprehensive Psychiatry 40, no. 6 (November–December 1999): 407–14.

  258 might have been barbiturates: For a historical discussion of the use of barbiturates as sedatives and anticonvulsants, see Francisco Lopez Munoz, “The History of Barbiturates a Century after Their Clinical Introduction,” Journal of Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment 1, no. 4 (December 2005): 329–43.

  259 Monteverde became stuck halfway: Balchen, Ford, and La Farge, War below Zero, p. 94.

  259 Monteverde was gone awhile: Spina, memoir, p. 29.

  259 a dozen roast chickens, pork chops, and cooked steaks: Ibid., p. 30.

  260 a natural remedy: Ibid.

  260 signs of being delusional: Ibid.

  260 the power of prayer: Ibid. Spina recalled the title as “The Power of Prayer,” but it almost certainly was “Prayer Is Power,” published in Reader’s Digest in 1941.

  260 “It is the only power”: From Alexis Carrel, “Prayer Is Power,” Reader’s Digest, March 1941, included in The Questing Spirit, by Halford E. Luccock and Frances Brentano (New York: Coward-McCann, 1947).

  261 lived on concentrated chocolate bars: Spina, memoir, p. 31.

  262 during Admiral Byrd’s 1933–1935 Antarctic expedition: Martin Sheridan, “Rescue Chief, from Gloucester, Thinks Trip on Ice Cap Is Fun,” Boston Globe, May 9, 1944.

  262 a square-shaped outcropping of rock named Cape Healey: “Dorchester Picture of the Day,” from the Dorchester Atheneum, located at dorchesteratheneum.org/page.php?id=3124 (accessed March 19, 2012).

  262 a scientific expedition to study penguins: Hendrik Dolleman obituary, www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=68397203 (accessed March 19, 2012).

  262 graduated from Princeton in 1924: Sheridan, “Rescue Chief.”

  263 Muscular, tanned, tall, and square-jawed: Hansen, Greenland’s Icy Fury, p. 19.

  263 “an opaque sheet of driving snow particles”: Balchen, Come North with Me, p. 245.

  264 The following day: Balchen, Ford, and La Farge, War below Zero, pp.

  99–100.

  264 climbed atop the front end: Spina, memoir, p. 32.

  265 “I guess these ice worms”: Ibid., p. 33.

  265 how little exhilaration they felt: Ibid.

  265 “I guess nothing could excite us”: Ibid.

  265 They reeked, and they knew it: Ibid., p. 40.

  266 throwing it into a crevasse: Ibid.

  23: “SOME PLAN IN THIS WORLD”

  284 The team’s lead dog was Rinsky: Caption to a photo taken by Bernt Balchen, released by the U.S. Army Air Forces Public Relations Office.

  285 Most seldom barked: Hansen, Greenland’s Icy Fury, p. 131–34.

  285 Spina was the first to falter: Balchen, Ford, and La Farge, War below Zero, p. 101.

  285 pursuit of the milk can: Spina, memoir, p. 33.

  285 The entrance was a large hole: Spina, memoir, p. 35.

  286 the Imperial Hotel: Balchen, Ford, and La Farge, War below Zero, p. 102. See also Spina, memoir, p. 35.

  286 warming blankets for the men: Alfred “Clint” Best, narrative for his family of his time on the ice, typewritten transcript provided by his son, Robert Best, December 27, 1987, p. 6. (Spina also describes the dogs inside the cave in his memoir, pp. 35–36.)

  287 Strong decided to get some exercise: Spina, memoir, p, 36.

  287 A bigger worry for Balchen: Balchen, Come North with Me, p. 245.

  287 Both suffered broken ailerons: Ragnarsson, US Navy PBY Catalina Units, p. 79.

  287 On April 5, 1943: Balchen, Come North with Me, p. 245.

  288 promoted to captain: Spina, memoir, p. 36.

  290 steel straps from equipment cases: Ragnarsson, US Navy PBY Catalina Units, p. 80. Details of the repairs also come from Spina, memoir, p. 37.

  290 holed up in the overgrown snow cave: Spina, memoir, p. 37.

  290 both engines for takeoff: Ibid., p. 246. Details of the damage to the engine were also taken from Balchen, Ford, and La Farge, War below Zero, p. 102; and Spina, memoir, p. 38.

  291 The three PN9E survivors were skeptical: Spina, memoir, p. 38.

  291 praying for good luck and good weather: Ibid.

  291 if its engines failed: Ibid.

  292 “If I hadn’t flown in this ship before”: Ibid.

  293 “I have no instruments”: Balchen, Come North with Me, p. 246.

  293 about one thousand feet: Ragnarsson, US Navy PBY Catalina Units, p. 80. Spina thought it was more like 600 feet (memoir, p. 39), but Ragnarsson is quoting Dunlop.

  294 planning a return to earth: Spina, memoir, p. 39.

  294 fifty feet above the ground: Ibid. In Balchen, Ford, and La Farge, War below Zero, p. 103, the estimate is fifteen feet.

  294 He and Best thought they were about to crash: Best, narrative, p. 3; Spina, memoir, p. 39.

  294 patted them on the backs: Spina, memoir, p. 39.

  294 far past the danger zone:
Ibid. Spina explains that this is based on a conversation between Dunlop and Monteverde, who went to the cockpit during the flight.

  295 how much fuel remained: Balchen, Ford, and La Farge, War below Zero, p. 103.

  295 Larson called Bluie East Two: Spina, memoir, p. 39.

  296 prepare for a crash: Ibid. This account is confirmed by Balchen, Ford, and La Farge, War below Zero, as well as by Ragnarsson.

  296 yet another problem: Ragnarsson, US Navy PBY Catalina Units, p. 80.

  297 emptied to greet them: Spina, memoir, p. 40.

  297 “out to the rescue”: Best, narrative, p. 6.

  EPILOGUE: AFTER GREENLAND

  318 “preferably in the South Pacific”: “Fortress Pilot Tells of 148 Days.”

  318 went to the White House: President Roosevelt, diary, www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/daybyday (accessed March 14, 2012).

  319 this imagined exchange: Paul Peters, Nine Men against the Arctic, radio play script, presented on The Cavalcade of America, Monday, August 2, 1943.

  320 “high devotion to duty”: “Greenland Crash Hero Gets Coveted Award,” Los Angeles Times, September 11, 1943.

  321 twenty-two years in the air force: Armand Monteverde obituary, Daily Republic, January 9, 1988.

  321 “I have not been where I could pay my dues”: Harry Spencer to Boy Scouts of America, Dallas Circle Ten Council, August 29, 1943.

  322 “I have been without toilet paper”: Podraza, interview.

  322 “the pristine whiteness of the Ice Cap snow”: Harry Spencer, written recollections of his return to the ice cap in June 1989, courtesy of Carol Sue Spencer Podraza.

  324 graduated with honors from Georgetown University Law School: “Attorney William O’Hara Dies.”

  324 resented needing a cane: Patricia O’Hara, interview, August 16, 2012.

  324 “The Army has some screwy regulation”: “Attorney William O’Hara Dies.”

  325 “All I have left is the pain and suffering”: DeAndrea, “Icy Ordeal,” p. 3.

  325 “I haven’t dwelled on what happened”: Ibid.

  325 “Anytime it was a bad situation”: Jean Spina Gaffney, interview, March 11, 2012.

  325 graduated magna cum laude: Alfred Clinton Best obituary, Houston Chronicle, March 15, 2002.

  326 “They called him ‘Kinderpa’ ”: Robert C. Best, interview.

  326 refused to fly: Peter Tucciarone, son of Alexander Tucciarone, interview, February 25, 2012.

  326 “I would do anything”: Kilday, “Survivor Recalls Rescue,” Mobile (Ala.) Press, n.d.

  326 “How can I tell them what’s in my heart”: Ibid.

  327 “the circulation still isn’t back to normal”: Lloyd Puryear to Alexander Tucciarone, April 2, 1943, provided by Peter Tucciarone.

  328 “ill with a lung ailment”: Pearl Puryear to Angelina Tucciarone, December 15, 1943, provided by Peter Tucciarone.

  328 “one of its favorite and most beloved native sons”: Lloyd Puryear obituary, News-Journal, January 13, 1944.

  328 “under rigorous Arctic conditions”: Distinguished Flying Cross citation for Lieutenant Bernard W. Dunlop, May 8, 1943.

  328 served as a lawyer: Nancy Dunlop, daughter of Bernard Dunlop, interview, March 23, 2012.

  328 promoted to major in July 1944: “Military Promotions,” Salt Lake Tribune, July 25, 1944.

  329 went to officer candidate school in Miami: “Glacier Hero Gets Officer’s Bars,” San Antonio Light, September 1, 1943.

  329 “Bernt Balchen Saves 7 on Ice Cap”: Chicago Tribune, May 4, 1943.

  329 “Flier of the Snows”: “Flier of the Snows,” unsigned editorial, New York Times, May 5, 1943.

  329 secret orders to wipe out a German weather station: Balchen, Come North with Me, pp. 246–47; Matz, History of the 2nd Ferrying Group, p. 145.

  330 flown over the North Pole: Balchen, Come North with Me, p. 66. In his 1958 autobiography, Balchen recounts a conversation with Byrd’s pilot, Floyd Bennett, who died in 1928. In Balchen’s telling, Bennett confirms Balchen’s suspicions that their plane, the Josephine Ford, wasn’t capable of reaching the North Pole.

  330 turned back well short of the pole: Raimund E. Goerler, “Richard E. Byrd and the North Pole Flight of 1926: Fact, Fiction as Fact, and Interpretation,” monograph, 1999, darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org/bitstream

  /handle/1912/1918/proc98363.pdf?sequence=1 (accessed April 12, 2012). See also Carroll V. Glines, review of To the Pole: The Diary and Notebook of Richard E. Byrd, 1925–1927, by Richard E. Byrd, edited by Raimund E. Goerler, Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 107, no. 3 (Summer 1999): 332–33.

  330 “a lifetime of remarkable achievements”: 106th Congress, 2nd session, Joint Resolution 36, passed October 23, 1999.

  330 “the key to the solution of a baffling problem”: Francois E. Matthew, obituary for Max Harrison Demorest, Science, n.s., 97, no. 2510 (February 5, 1943): 132.

  330 “In the death of Max Demorest”: Ibid.

  331 working for the U.S. Geological Survey: “Reno Woman Takes New Job in Washington,” Reno Evening Gazette, February 2, 1954.

  331 studied botany and geology: Photo caption labeled “Now a Student at the University of Michigan,” Reno Evening Gazette, November 13, 1957.

  331 wrote to the six remaining PN9E survivors: Major James McFarland, Memorial Division, Office of the Quartermaster General, to Alfred C. Best, October 15, 1947. Similar letters were sent to Harry Spencer, Paul Spina, and other crewmen.

  331 “Crevasses which we observed”: Harry Spencer to the Office of the Quartermaster General, October 25, 1947.

  331 had a dream: Reba Greathead, daughter of Clarence Wedel, interview by e-mail, March 14, 2012.

  332 “Passed from Earth to Glory”: Photograph of the tombstone provided by Eric Langhorst, Wedel’s grandson-in-law, March 6, 2012.

  332 “War in all its shattering bitterness”: “Word Received of L. Howarth Death,” Wausaukee Independent, February 26, 1943.

  332 chased a Nazi vessel: “USCGC Northland (WPG–49) History Sketch,” Public Affairs Division, U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, p. 3.

  332 purchased by American Zionists: Ibid. See also Ya’acov Friedler, “Aliya Bet Ship Sold for Scrap,” news clipping found in U.S. Coast Guard historical files, February 23, 1962, no publication noted.

  333 “Our old sister”: Ibid.

  Select Bibliography

  B-17F Bomber Pilot’s Flight Operating Instructions. Originally published by the U.S. Army Air Forces, December 1942. Reprinted by Periscopefilm.com.

  Balchen, Bernt. Come North with Me. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1958.

  Balchen, Bernt, Corey Ford, and Oliver La Farge. War below Zero. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1944.

  Carlson, William S. Greenland Lies North. New York: Macmillan, 1940.

  The Coast Guard at War: Greenland Patrol. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Coast Guard, 1945.

  Erlich, Gretel. This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland. New York: Vintage, 2003.

  Hansen, Wallace. Greenland’s Icy Fury. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1994.

  Hayes, David. The Lost Squadron. Edison, N.J.: Chartwell, 2008.

  Howarth, David. The Sledge Patrol: A WWII Epic of Escape, Survival and Victory. New York: Macmillan, 1957.

  Johnson, Corydon M. Erection and Maintenance Instructions for Model Grumman J2F-4 Airplanes, August 16, 1939. U.S. Coast Guard historical archives.

  Kearns, David A. Where Hell Freezes Over: A Story of Amazing Survival and Bravery. New York: Thomas Dunne, 2005.

  Kpomassie, Tete-Michel. An African in Greenland. New York: NYRB Classics, 2001.

  La Farge, Oliver. The Eagle in the Egg. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1949.

  Matz, Onas P. History of the 2nd Ferrying Group. Seattle: Modet, 1993.

  Novak, Thaddeus D. Life and Death on the Greenland Patrol, 1942. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005.

  Ostrom, Thomas. The United States Coast Guard in World War II: A History of Domestic and
Overseas Actions. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2009.

  Seaver, Kirsten. The Frozen Echo: Greenland and the Exploration of North America, ca. A.D. 1000–1500. Palo Alto, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1997.

  Taub, Capt. Donald M., USCG Retired. The Greenland Ice Cap Rescue of B-17 “PN9E,” November 5, 1942, to May 8, 1943 (monograph). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Coast Guard History Program, 2011.

  Ting, Henning. Encounters with Wildlife in Greenland. Nuuk, Greenland: Greenland Home Rule Government Department of Environment and Wildlife Management, n.d.

  Vaughan, Norman D. My Life of Adventure. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole, 1995.

  Willoughby, Malcolm F. U.S. Coast Guard in World War II. Annapolis, Md.: U.S. Naval Institute Press, 1957.

  Index

  The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use your ebook reader’s search tools.

  Note: Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.

  Adam of Bremen, 10

  Air Force, U.S.:

  Arctic Survival Manual, 75–78

  and competition among military branches, 84

  and Operation Bolero, 17, 22, 118

  rescue missions flown by, 22–23, 84, 187

  and Short Snorters, 107–8

  Snowball Route of, 17

  Air Greenland, 246, 268, 273, 280, 302, 313

  airmail delivery, 117

  Air Transport Command, 33, 174, 204, 321

  Aklak (converted fishing boat), 126

  Amundsen, Roald, 116, 207

  Ancient Order of the Pterodactyl, 95, 96, 98

  Anderson, Norman, 210

  Anoretok Fjord, 84

  Antarctica, 11

  first flight over South Pole, 117

  lost navy plane in, 94, 101–2

  Arctic conditions, see Greenland

  Arctic Survival Manual (Army Air Force), 75–78

  Arlington National Cemetery, 96

  Army, U.S.:

  Air Forces of, see Air Force, U.S.

  bases on Greenland, 16–17, 112, 114, 118

  and competition among military branches, 84, 209

  C rations, 121

  CRREL radar team, 201, 202, 242, 243, 251

  Field Ration D, 62–63, 121

  K rations, 62