Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hey everyone, it is Jared Martinez. Before we get
Speaker 1: into this episode, I wanted to let you know that
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Speaker 1: Honor right now ad free with Pushkin Plus. Get all
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Speaker 1: an annual subscription. Okay, now to the episode. Two men
Speaker 1: were jammed into the tiny cockpit of an airplane. They
Speaker 1: wore leather flying helmets and goggles and parkas made of
Speaker 1: reindeer hides. Their faces peeked out from giant fur hoods.
Speaker 1: It was below freezing outside, and they were about to
Speaker 1: get much much colder. It was half past midnight on
Speaker 1: May ninth, nineteen twenty six, and neither of them had
Speaker 1: slept for thirty six hours. A pale moon was visible
Speaker 1: on one side of the horizon, but the sun was
Speaker 1: shining too, and never set, not this time of the year,
Speaker 1: not this far north. Because these two aviators and their
Speaker 1: small three engine propeller plane were in Norway, roughly six
Speaker 1: hundred miles from the top of the world, the North Pole,
Speaker 1: and they were determined to fly over it. They would
Speaker 1: make their way across the frozen Polar Sea to what exactly.
Speaker 1: They weren't sure because nobody had flown over the North
Speaker 1: Pole before. The two men hunched over the dials in
Speaker 1: the cockpit. The plane had been roped down because the
Speaker 1: runway was icy and short. They were going to let
Speaker 1: the engines rev up to full power and then the
Speaker 1: plane would be cut loose. One of the pilots opened
Speaker 1: the throttles. The airplane strained forward. As the engines wore,
Speaker 1: everything shook. The noise was deafening. The pilots couldn't hear
Speaker 1: each other over it, but they didn't need to talk.
Speaker 1: They were both thinking the same thing. They had to
Speaker 1: get off the ground. They had to go. It was
Speaker 1: do or die. The engine propeller spun so fast that
Speaker 1: they were just a blurt and at the side of
Speaker 1: the runway, one of their friends raised an axe and
Speaker 1: cut the rope that was keeping the plane on the
Speaker 1: ground and they were off. I'm Jr. Martinez, and this
Speaker 1: is Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage, The Medal of
Speaker 1: Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States.
Speaker 1: It's a warded for gallantry and bravery and combat at
Speaker 1: the risk of life, above and beyond the call of duty.
Speaker 1: Each candidate must be approved all the way up the
Speaker 1: chain of command, from the supervisory officer in the field
Speaker 1: to the White House. This show is about those heroes,
Speaker 1: what they did, what it meant, and what their stories
Speaker 1: tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice. This
Speaker 1: episode is about Richard evel and Byrd, and it's pretty
Speaker 1: different from what we usually talk about in this series
Speaker 1: because he didn't receive his Medal of Honor for something
Speaker 1: he did on the battlefield or even during a war.
Speaker 1: It's a story without a single bullet. Instead, this episode
Speaker 1: is about exploration. It takes place during a time when
Speaker 1: America was obsessed with discovering and claiming the farthest reaches
Speaker 1: of our planet, and exploration takes bravery, facing the unknown,
Speaker 1: knowing you're risking death, but still stepping forward, which is
Speaker 1: exactly what Richard Byrd did. Dick Bird started exploring the
Speaker 1: world when he was just a kid. You might be like, oh, sure,
Speaker 1: all kids explore, but I'm not talking about that kind
Speaker 1: of exploration. In nineteen oh two, when he was just thirteen,
Speaker 1: Dick left his home in Virginia and made his way
Speaker 1: across the United States by himself. Danny got on a
Speaker 1: boat to Japan and then another went to the Philippines,
Speaker 1: traveling alone for weeks. Would I let my thirteen year
Speaker 1: old travel around the world by herself. She can't even
Speaker 1: make it down the block and she has a phone,
Speaker 1: So yeah, the answer is no. But Dick's parents were different.
Speaker 1: I guess they came from a long line of explorers.
Speaker 1: His dad's ancestors had left England and arrived in Virginia
Speaker 1: in sixteen seventy. His moms arrived in sixteen oh nine.
Speaker 1: Plus Dick was determined. He wore them down. That's the
Speaker 1: kind of person he was, even back then. He didn't
Speaker 1: come home for a year. By the age of fourteen,
Speaker 1: he made a solo trip around the world. You might
Speaker 1: want to rewind about thirty seconds and hear this whole
Speaker 1: section over again because it's ridiculous. Keep in mind this
Speaker 1: was a time when exploration was booming. There were still
Speaker 1: parts of the world that were totally undiscovered, well at
Speaker 1: least by white people. So in Europe and America. There
Speaker 1: was a race to get there first, and Dick couldn't
Speaker 1: wait to join those teams of explorers. He graduated from
Speaker 1: the Naval Academy. He had grown into a handsome guy
Speaker 1: with wavy, dark hair and blue eyes. He was modest, kind.
Speaker 1: People loved him, but his career in the Navy wasn't
Speaker 1: going well. Back in his school days, he'd been captain
Speaker 1: of the gymnastics team. One classmate described him as a
Speaker 1: carefree elf with the grace of a cat. But he
Speaker 1: fractured his ankle doing a trick on the rings and
Speaker 1: it never fully healed well. In the Navy, this was
Speaker 1: a major liability. He would never be on the front
Speaker 1: lines of combat, so Dick changed things up, because having
Speaker 1: a bad foot didn't really matter if you were sitting
Speaker 1: in a plane. He became an expert in night flying
Speaker 1: and navigation. During World War One, he helped with the
Speaker 1: first fleet of military aircraft, and after the war he
Speaker 1: developed tools for transatlantic flight. In the Navy, Dick was
Speaker 1: famous for his navigational skills, and he was excited to
Speaker 1: put them to use. At the time, people weren't just
Speaker 1: flying planes. There were also flying dirigibles aka blimps. In
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty one, Dick was supposed to be on one
Speaker 1: of the first dirigible flights across the Atlantic, but he
Speaker 1: missed his train and lost his spot. That blimp apart
Speaker 1: in mid air, killing almost everyone on board. Dick helped
Speaker 1: to find the bodies. There was a near miss that
Speaker 1: haunted him, but it didn't slow him down because soon
Speaker 1: he was headed for the North Pole. People have been
Speaker 1: trying to reach the top of the world for decades
Speaker 1: by then, by dogs, sled and even hot air balloon.
Speaker 1: They weren't sure if there was land up there, but
Speaker 1: if there was, every country wanted to claim it. Here's
Speaker 1: Dick talking about why he wanted to go years later.
Speaker 2: As long as it remains anything unknown on the face
Speaker 2: of this earth we live on, man is going to
Speaker 2: go after it, to try to find out what it is,
Speaker 2: to attempt to conquer it, and to learn how to
Speaker 2: live in it.
Speaker 1: And the way to get to the North Pole was
Speaker 1: by air. But flying was insanely dangerous. No one had
Speaker 1: ever flown in high latitudes without serious problems. Let's not
Speaker 1: forget planes were only invented back in nineteen o three.
Speaker 1: That's a little over twenty years, but that didn't stop Dick,
Speaker 1: of course not. In nineteen twenty five, he joined an
Speaker 1: expedition with some other explorers to fly over the North Pole.
Speaker 1: That attempt failed, but it had one giant upside. It
Speaker 1: introduced Dick to a guy named Floyd Bennett. Bennett was
Speaker 1: two years younger than Dick and looked like an old
Speaker 1: fashioned movie star with blonde hair parted on the side.
Speaker 1: He had grown up in terrible poverty, but he was
Speaker 1: a mechanical genius and one of the best pilots in
Speaker 1: the air. On that nineteen twenty five trip, Dick and
Speaker 1: Bennett had been flying partners when one of their oil
Speaker 1: tanks broke. Bennett actually climbed onto a wing mid flight
Speaker 1: and fixed it, saving them from falling to an icy death.
Speaker 1: So as soon as Dick got home, he started planning
Speaker 1: to go back to the Pole, and he knew he
Speaker 1: would bring Bennett with him. He had to act fast
Speaker 1: because there were other groups on their way there too.
Speaker 1: Expeditions were being planned from Paris to Detroit. It was
Speaker 1: a crazy race to the top of the world, and
Speaker 1: Dick wanted to cross the finish line first, but he
Speaker 1: had one big rival in Norwegian by the name of
Speaker 1: Roald Amundsen. In nineteen eleven, he had been the first
Speaker 1: man to reach the South Pole by dog sled, and
Speaker 1: now he was gunning for the North Alminsen had already
Speaker 1: tried to get there once by plane. He made it
Speaker 1: within one hundred and thirty six miles, and then he
Speaker 1: had to land and got stuck. He spent a month
Speaker 1: on the ice and he barely survived. So this time
Speaker 1: he wasn't going to go by plane. Instead, he bought
Speaker 1: a dirigible from the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. So maybe
Speaker 1: not a great partner, but Mussolini was excited about the
Speaker 1: North Pole too, so he sold him the blimp at
Speaker 1: a disc count and guess what he got it blessed
Speaker 1: by the Pope. Dick didn't want to go by blip. Instead,
Speaker 1: he found a fixed wing three engine plane for a
Speaker 1: good price. He figured that three engines were safer than one.
Speaker 1: If one went out, the plane could get pretty far
Speaker 1: on just two. As he put it, quote, the multi
Speaker 1: motored plane is the answer, the stages said. Confidence is
Speaker 1: all that is needed. Well, confidence and money. Explorers had
Speaker 1: to raise cash for everything. A boat to get up
Speaker 1: north supplies to feed the crew, and on and on.
Speaker 1: So Dick went to Edsel Ford, son of the famous
Speaker 1: Henry Ford. Ford gave him twenty thousand dollars, which is
Speaker 1: worth around three hundred and seventy thousand dollars today. Dick
Speaker 1: named his plane the Josephine after Ford's three year old daughter.
Speaker 1: Smart move. So now that Dick and Almonson both had
Speaker 1: their airships, the sprint to the Pole was on and
Speaker 1: the press covered every minute of it.
Speaker 3: And Navy Commander Richard Eveln Byrd is about to join
Speaker 3: pilot Voyd Bennett on an historic journey. They had the
Speaker 3: first flight over top of the world. Might have take
Speaker 3: off icy wastes of Arctic destination North Pole and return.
Speaker 1: On April fifth, Dick's boat left New York Harbor. It
Speaker 1: carried his plane supplies the last six months and fifty
Speaker 1: North Pole obsessed volunteers, including Bennett. Oh and can't forget
Speaker 1: a little white terrier named Igloo their destination with Spitzbergen, Norway.
Speaker 1: It was close enough to the Pole that they could
Speaker 1: fly to Josephine there without having to refuel, and it
Speaker 1: had a harbor where Dick's boat could dock. Thousands of
Speaker 1: people were screaming and waving as Dick st sell, cheering
Speaker 1: for him and Bennett and Igloo too. They were major celebrities,
Speaker 1: and hey, America wanted to win this race. Dick wrote
Speaker 1: in his diary, quote, I think of the expedition not
Speaker 1: as mine, but as ours, the boys with me and America's.
Speaker 1: This day has proved that there is a lot of
Speaker 1: romance in spirit of adventure in this great country. But
Speaker 1: he also noted that quote, the hardest part of an
Speaker 1: expedition is the worry one causes those nearest and dearest,
Speaker 1: and Dick had people at home that were worried. His
Speaker 1: three little kids and his wife, Marie, Maria Dick had
Speaker 1: met when there were children. Dick absolutely adored her. He
Speaker 1: wrote a letter to his six year old son to
Speaker 1: be read if he didn't make it back. It said, quote,
Speaker 1: my last words to you, my boy, are to beg
Speaker 1: you to understand, cherish, and protect your mother, and to
Speaker 1: model yourself as much as you can after her, for
Speaker 1: she is the finest person in the world. Dick was
Speaker 1: risking his life, but that didn't stop him exploring. Was
Speaker 1: in his bones.
Speaker 4: You find the mountain range, say twenty thousand feet high
Speaker 4: thousand miles long. Well that's quite a kick, you know,
Speaker 4: and you do find such things every time you explore.
Speaker 1: On April twenty ninth, Dick's team arrived in Spitzberg and Norway.
Speaker 1: His boat slowly made its way through the frozen bay,
Speaker 1: pass ice floes bobbing in the water towards the dock
Speaker 1: that they had been counting on. But then they got
Speaker 1: the news their ship would not be allowed to land.
Speaker 1: Rold Aminsen was already there. Richard Bird had spent years
Speaker 1: dreaming of reaching the North Pole, raising money and supplies,
Speaker 1: weeks sailing north, and then he was told by the
Speaker 1: local officials, Yeah, you're just gonna have to wait. But
Speaker 1: here's the thing. He was starting his trip in Norway,
Speaker 1: and who was his rival? Rolled Almondson and Norwegian. As
Speaker 1: one guy on Alminson's team wrote quote, we resent this
Speaker 1: foreign ship coming here to our own country to snatch
Speaker 1: the prize, which we feel belongs to Captain Amundson alone.
Speaker 1: The man who wrote that was named Burnt Balkan. We're
Speaker 1: gonna hear a lot more from him. Okay, so fine.
Speaker 1: Maybe Dick shouldn't have been surprised by the icy welcome
Speaker 1: Almondson was super anxious, still waiting for his dirigible to
Speaker 1: arrive from Italy. It was called the norj and it
Speaker 1: was delayed, so the Norwegians wanted to slow Dick down
Speaker 1: to now just so you know the rules for this race,
Speaker 1: all the explorers were supposed to be gentlemen, no tricky stuff.
Speaker 1: Almonson and Dick had elegant lunches together on their ships,
Speaker 1: but that didn't mean the Norwegians weren't trying to give
Speaker 1: their guy the edge. It made Dick crazy, as he wrote,
Speaker 1: quote great sportsmanship. In spite of anything the Norwegians do.
Speaker 1: I intend to be a good sport and be dignified
Speaker 1: and calm. They have made it very difficult for us,
Speaker 1: So Dick and his team decided to work around them.
Speaker 1: Dick's men hoisted two lifeboats over the side of the boat.
Speaker 1: They lowered them into the water and tied them together
Speaker 1: side by side. They did the same thing with two
Speaker 1: warm boats. Then long planks of wood were put on
Speaker 1: top of them. The crew worked deep into the night
Speaker 1: hammering everything together. Almondson and his team were watching from
Speaker 1: across the bay and they were like the hell And
Speaker 1: then they saw Dick's crew had built a giant raft.
Speaker 1: The men lowered the Josephine onto the raft and paddled
Speaker 1: it to shore, and it looked like Dick had a
Speaker 1: head start on the race, but then he hit a snack.
Speaker 1: They needed to do some test flights, but the ground
Speaker 1: was totally frozen, so the plane had to land on skis,
Speaker 1: and the ski that they brought were too small. On
Speaker 1: their first test flight, they broke, sending the plane straight
Speaker 1: into a snowbank. Dick's crew was working overtime in sub
Speaker 1: zero conditions, getting frostbite, but trying to figure it out fast. Meantime,
Speaker 1: the Norge was getting closer to Spitzbergen, slowly but surely
Speaker 1: heading for the starting block. But remember Burnt Balkan from
Speaker 1: Allminson's team. He decided to help the Americans. He made
Speaker 1: new skis for the Josephine and gave the crew tips
Speaker 1: about how to build a runway on the ice. As
Speaker 1: you can imagine, Allminsen was pissed. Dick wrote in his
Speaker 1: diary quote Almondson gave Balkan, who is a peach, orders
Speaker 1: to not come near us again. Finally, the Josephine had
Speaker 1: a successful test flight and then on May seventh, the
Speaker 1: Norridge arrived. It just needed some small repairs. It felt
Speaker 1: like the starting gun had been fired. The race was
Speaker 1: really on. The very next day, Dick's team loaded up
Speaker 1: the Josephine. No more test flights, they would head to
Speaker 1: the pole. Packing the plane was tricky. Dick and Bennett
Speaker 1: needed enough supplies to be able to survive on the
Speaker 1: ice if they crashed, but every pound that they packed
Speaker 1: would also slow them down. They had dug a runway
Speaker 1: out of the snow, then sprayed it with water so
Speaker 1: it would turn into a slick of ice and guarantee
Speaker 1: a fast start. Dick and Bennett were totally geared up,
Speaker 1: parkas and pants made of animal skin and sheep skin,
Speaker 1: boots and leather gloves. It was frigid cold on the ground,
Speaker 1: but it was going to be even colder in the air.
Speaker 1: The Josephine wasn't pressurized or climate controlled. The engines went on,
Speaker 1: the propellers were spinning, and the Josephine shot forward, but
Speaker 1: it didn't get off the runway. The plane was too heavy.
Speaker 1: You gotta imagine the Norwegians were psyched about that. Dick
Speaker 1: and Bennett got out and the crew raced to reposition
Speaker 1: the plane. They unloaded everything they didn't really need. By
Speaker 1: the time they were done, it was late at night.
Speaker 1: Dick and Bennett were exhausted. And here's another thing. The
Speaker 1: flight was going to take at least fifteen hours and
Speaker 1: they wouldn't be able to sleep in the air. So
Speaker 1: they headed back to the boat for some rest. But
Speaker 1: then the two men looked at each other. The conditions
Speaker 1: were perfect for takeoff. They couldn't risk waiting. Had to
Speaker 1: try now, exhausted or not, so in the first minutes
Speaker 1: after midnight on May night, the two aviators walked back
Speaker 1: to the Josephine, their boots crunching in the snow. They
Speaker 1: checked their instruments. Bennett opened the throttles. The cockpit shook
Speaker 1: like crazy, the engines roared, and then the rope that
Speaker 1: bound them to Earth was cut and the plane bolted
Speaker 1: down the icy runway the Josephine. Ford lifted off. As
Speaker 1: soon as they felt the airplane rise, Bennett smiled at Dick.
Speaker 1: They couldn't actually talk because they couldn't hear each other
Speaker 1: over the engines, so they communicated through hand signals and notes.
Speaker 1: Bennett was flying so that Dick could focus on what
Speaker 1: he was famous for navigating because this was decades before GPS,
Speaker 1: and they were at the North Pole, so their compasses
Speaker 1: didn't work. There was nothing but endless water and ice
Speaker 1: for miles, no landmarks, which meant they couldn't guide by sight,
Speaker 1: so the navigator had to operate several instruments in order
Speaker 1: to verify their position. One was a sextont, which was
Speaker 1: used to measure the angle between the horizon and the
Speaker 1: sun or the moon. Then there was an instrument to
Speaker 1: measure wind drift. To use it, Dick had to poke
Speaker 1: his head out of the plane and get frostbitten. I
Speaker 1: know this all sounds insanely low tech, but at the
Speaker 1: time it was all cutting edge and it had been
Speaker 1: proven to work as long as the navigator was good enough,
Speaker 1: and Dick was one of the best. Dick kept notes
Speaker 1: in his journal, writing in pencil, fixing his calculations, and
Speaker 1: writing instructions to Bennett. When they were about seven and
Speaker 1: a half hours into the trip and about an hour
Speaker 1: away from the pole, Dick saw something that made his
Speaker 1: stomach drop. Oil was spraying from the tank of wine
Speaker 1: one of the motors. He sent Bennett back to look
Speaker 1: in his notebook, he wrote, is it a bad leak?
Speaker 1: Bennett replied, it is a bad leak, and we may
Speaker 1: lose the motor at any time. So they had to
Speaker 1: make a decision continue on to the poll and risk
Speaker 1: losing an engine, or head back to safety. For the
Speaker 1: two men, it wasn't a choice. They were Navy flyers.
Speaker 1: This was their mission. They had faced death together once
Speaker 1: before and survived, so they kept going. Dick Bird and
Speaker 1: Floyd Bennett were flying towards the North Pole, praying that
Speaker 1: their third engine would hold. Below them, the frozen sea
Speaker 1: seemed to stretch into infinity. As Dick later said, quote,
Speaker 1: we felt no larger than a pinpoint, and as lonely
Speaker 1: as the tune, as remote and detached as a star.
Speaker 1: Dick checked and rechecked his instruments, and, as he later wrote,
Speaker 1: quote at nine o two am granted civil time. Our
Speaker 1: calculation showed us to be at the pole. The dream
Speaker 1: of a lifetime had had last been realized. The two
Speaker 1: men filmed what they saw, and what did they see,
Speaker 1: well kind of nothing, just water and snow and chunks
Speaker 1: of frozen ice. Nothing to even plant a flagon. So
Speaker 1: instead they circled the pole once and then again, covering
Speaker 1: their bases in case they were slightly off. They quickly
Speaker 1: headed back. I mean, who knew how long that busted
Speaker 1: engine would hold. During the return flight, the ex fell
Speaker 1: and broke. This meant Dick had to navigate purely by
Speaker 1: what they call dead reckoning, calculating distance and speed and time.
Speaker 1: Dick got them all the way to Spitzbergen using only that.
Speaker 1: After a total flight time of nearly sixteen hours, the
Speaker 1: Josephine Ford returned. The rest of the crew had been
Speaker 1: waiting half thrilled, half terrified, but as soon as they
Speaker 1: saw the plane on the horizon, they were throwing their
Speaker 1: hats in the air. Racing to the Josephine, they hoisted
Speaker 1: Dick and Bennett on their shoulders.
Speaker 3: Second half of flight as successful as Bird and Bennett
Speaker 3: get warm welcome back to base.
Speaker 1: Even Almondsen was excited. I mean, you got to give
Speaker 1: him credit in the end. He was a good sport,
Speaker 1: even though his dirigible was still not in the air.
Speaker 1: He came running to congratulate Dick, and of course Balkan
Speaker 1: did too. Dick's expedition had conquered the North Pole. They
Speaker 1: were first. Almondson eventually got there He left Spitzbergen on
Speaker 1: May eleventh and reached the pole on the twelfth. There
Speaker 1: were sixteen men in the norg. Burnt Balkin was not included.
Speaker 1: When Dick's team got back to the States, they had
Speaker 1: a hero's welcome with a ticker tape parade through Manhattan.
Speaker 4: Millions of New Yorkers turned out in a thrilling tribute
Speaker 4: to the daring explorer whose achievements had won the admiration
Speaker 4: and a claim of the entire world.
Speaker 1: Dick submitted the records of his flight to the US Navy,
Speaker 1: and they were scrutinized by a panel of experts at
Speaker 1: the National Geographic Society. This group confirmed his calculations. The
Speaker 1: fact that he was able to return without a sextant
Speaker 1: proved quote that he was equally successful in his flight northward.
Speaker 1: The feet of flying a plane six hundred miles from
Speaker 1: land and returning directly to the point aimed for shows
Speaker 1: beyond a re reasonable doubt that he knew where he
Speaker 1: was at all times during the flight. Both Dick and
Speaker 1: Bennett received promotions from the Navy, and at a White
Speaker 1: House ceremony on February twenty fifth, both men received the
Speaker 1: Medal of honor Igloo the Dog. He became a celebrity too,
Speaker 1: and he even had a book written about him. But
Speaker 1: almost immediately there were doubts. The Italian press was stunned,
Speaker 1: how could their blimp not have made it there first
Speaker 1: it had been blessed by the Pope, and more skepticism followed,
Speaker 1: but Dick seemed convinced he had made it. He had
Speaker 1: given Almundson a chart of his North Pole readings so
Speaker 1: that he could use it on the Norge. It would
Speaker 1: have been a crazy thing to do if he didn't
Speaker 1: believe they were correct. Anyway, Dick didn't pay much attention
Speaker 1: to the controversy. He was too busy planning his next adventure.
Speaker 1: He flew across the Atlantic after Charles Limberg, but still
Speaker 1: early days, and then he was the first man to
Speaker 1: fly across the South Pole in nineteen twenty nine, proving
Speaker 1: his navigational skills again. Who was by his side for
Speaker 1: both of those flights not Floyd Bennett. Sadly, he had
Speaker 1: been injured in a crash and later caught pneumonia. He
Speaker 1: died in nineteen twenty eight at the age of thirty seven.
Speaker 1: Alminsen was gone that year too. He disappeared while flying
Speaker 1: in the Arctic. His body was never found. The person
Speaker 1: who came with Dick, was you ready for this? Burnt Balkan.
Speaker 1: He'd been shunned by his fellow Norwegians for helping Dick
Speaker 1: at the North Pole, but Dick still thought Balkan was
Speaker 1: a peach. Dick went back to the South Pole five
Speaker 1: times during his life, in freezing and deadly conditions. It
Speaker 1: took so long to get down there. Their early expeditions
Speaker 1: each lasted over a year. Special guest on the first
Speaker 1: one Igloo, Dick yearned for Marie and the kids, but
Speaker 1: his explorations were in a way for them. He believed
Speaker 1: there were untapped riches down there.
Speaker 4: It's an untouched reservoir of natural resources, which this country
Speaker 4: in the world will need desperately, because we are recklessly
Speaker 4: expending a natural resources and there won't be many years
Speaker 4: before we will be ironpede in desperate need of that
Speaker 4: those minerals that are there. And I'm looking into the future,
Speaker 4: thinking of those of children and children.
Speaker 1: As the years went by, the North Pole stopped feeling
Speaker 1: quite so far away.
Speaker 3: The North Pole used to be a no man's land,
Speaker 3: But these are the days when by buying a ticket
Speaker 3: on a commercial airline you can fly across the North
Speaker 3: Pole and drink a cocktail at the same time.
Speaker 1: The Pole became a key to transatlantic flight, and as
Speaker 1: World War Two inch closer, Dick watched as it became
Speaker 1: even more significant.
Speaker 2: Little did I think when we flew to the North
Speaker 2: Pole in nineteen twenty six, This area, the Contiguoussylums Waters,
Speaker 2: Do I have a flight to the Pole would become
Speaker 2: one of the most important strategic areas on the face
Speaker 2: of the earth. But if we, god forbid, do have
Speaker 2: a war, much of it will be fought across the
Speaker 2: top of the world, across the Pole.
Speaker 1: His prediction was right. During World War Two, the North
Speaker 1: Pole was super important for weather forecasting and armed shipments
Speaker 1: and a bunch of other things. Dick was a special
Speaker 1: advisor to the Chief of Naval Operations during the war.
Speaker 1: He was present when the Japanese surrendered in nineteen forty five,
Speaker 1: and he was way ahead of his time. He raised
Speaker 1: the alarm about what was happening at the top of
Speaker 1: the world.
Speaker 2: It's becoming warmer up there. I believe myself, the whole
Speaker 2: world is becoming one.
Speaker 1: Dick died in nineteen fifty seven of a heart ailment.
Speaker 1: He was sixty eight years old. But shortly after his death,
Speaker 1: his Norwegian friend, the peach Burnt Balkan started telling a
Speaker 1: different story about that North Pole flight. He claimed that
Speaker 1: before his death, Floyd Bennett said they never made it
Speaker 1: to the pole once the oil league began, they just
Speaker 1: circled around out of view until enough time had passed
Speaker 1: that they could claim they'd gone. Now, Bennett wasn't alive
Speaker 1: to corroborate this. Of course, it was Balkan's word against
Speaker 1: a ghost, but the damage was done then. In the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, Ohio State University received Dick's personal diary from
Speaker 1: the North Pole flight. It was disorganized and out of sequence,
Speaker 1: with personal thoughts and notes that Bennett and Dick had
Speaker 1: written to each other. There were also Dick's navigational calculations.
Speaker 1: They were done in pencil and some had been erased
Speaker 1: and rewritten. Had Dick fixed his numbers to make them
Speaker 1: seem like he had gotten too the Pole? Did the
Speaker 1: pressure to be the first get the better of him?
Speaker 1: Some critics said yes, that there was no way the
Speaker 1: plan could have gone fast enough to get him there,
Speaker 1: and the eraser marks were proof. Others said no, they
Speaker 1: were just evidence that Bird was updating his numbers, fixing
Speaker 1: them in transit. Sure they were sloppy, but he was exhausted.
Speaker 1: There is no way for us to know for certain
Speaker 1: if Dick and Bennett made it over the North Pole
Speaker 1: that day in nineteen twenty six. Here's the thing as
Speaker 1: I see it. At the end of the day, what
Speaker 1: matters is their bravery and their willingness to risk everything.
Speaker 1: Like all of the guys we profile, Dick looked out
Speaker 1: into the unknown, and he still moved forward. He was
Speaker 1: an incredible explorer. Either he got to the North Pole
Speaker 1: or not. He risked his life the moment he set
Speaker 1: off in the Josephine, and then he did it again
Speaker 1: and again for decades. Sure there was a pursuit of
Speaker 1: glory of finding a spot in the history books. I
Speaker 1: think that probably motivates every explorer. But there was also
Speaker 1: the pursuit of knowledge to benefit the greater good. And
Speaker 1: that's what Dick really cared about more than anything. He
Speaker 1: wanted us all to be explorers, not in the frozen
Speaker 1: tundra necessarily, but explores of what's going on in our world.
Speaker 1: When he was asked later in life. What his advice
Speaker 1: for people was.
Speaker 4: He said this, they should keep themselves in palm, keep willing, calm.
Speaker 4: Then you will have a chance to know what's going
Speaker 4: on behind the scenes, and they ask questions and realize
Speaker 4: that you cannot have liberty without paying a price.
Speaker 3: Food.
Speaker 4: Each person is important.
Speaker 2: If all of them get together and study and.
Speaker 4: Ask questions and know what's going on, they can vote intelligently.
Speaker 4: Because in the elpheimate analysis, we are completely responsible for
Speaker 4: what happened where the government's consent. If they make mistakes,
Speaker 4: it's our fault. They're not taking enough interest and taking
Speaker 4: the wonderful freedom we have.
Speaker 1: Seriously, you know, Richard byrd knew that information is power
Speaker 1: and democracy can't survive without it. He went to the
Speaker 1: ends of the earth looking for knowledge. The least we
Speaker 1: can do is read the news. Thank you all for
Speaker 1: listening and supporting our show. Over the past year, we've
Speaker 1: gotten emails from some of you sharing great stories of courage,
Speaker 1: and we want to shout out Tom Shine for sharing
Speaker 1: Emil Capon's story. He was an army chaplain in World
Speaker 1: War Two and Korea and receive the Medal of Honor
Speaker 1: nearly fifty years after he died in a North Korean
Speaker 1: pow camp. Thank you so much for sharing Tom. If
Speaker 1: you have stories or people you would like to highlight,
Speaker 1: email us at Medal of Honor at Pushkin dot fm.
Speaker 1: Your participation helps us make great episodes, so please follow
Speaker 1: the show, share it with a friend, or leave a review.
Speaker 1: These are all zero cost ways to support us. Find
Speaker 1: us on social media at Pushkin pods or find me
Speaker 1: at IMJR. Martinez Medal of Stories of Courage is written
Speaker 1: by Meredith Rollins and produced by Meredith Rollins and Ryan Schwiker.
Speaker 1: Our editor is Lydia gene Kott. Sound designed by Jay Gorsky.
Speaker 1: Our executive producer is Constanza Gayadro. Fact checking by Arthur
Speaker 1: Gomperts and original music by Eric Phillips. Special thanks to
Speaker 1: Ohio State Universities, Bird, Polar and Climate Research Center for
Speaker 1: letting us use their interviews of Bird. If you want
Speaker 1: to learn more about this story, take a look at
Speaker 1: our show notes, where we have some of the resources
Speaker 1: we use to put this episode together. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: j R. Martinez