The October ECHS Meeting the September Meeting
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The September Meeting Tuesday, September 24, 2013, 3:00 p. m. in THE NEWSLE TTER FOR the Neal Auditorium in the Neal Colonial Center (Administration Building) Jefferson Davis Community College The Neal Auditorium is on the Blacksher Street side of the Neal THE ESCAMBIATHE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Colonial Center with parking in the back of the building. ECHS has had to change the location of the September meeting because of a special election. The meeting room in the Thomas E. McMillan Museum will be used for voting. NEWSLETTER AND JOURNAL FOR AND JOURNAL NEWSLETTER ECHOES Escambia Escambia The Program THE "United States Operations in Antarctica" Presenters will be: Billy Blackwelder, a retired Navy helicopter pilot who was active in the US Antarctica Research program in the THE ESCAMBIA COUNTYHISTORICAL SOCIETY 1970's and Conrad "Gus" Shinn who became the first person to land a plane at the South Pole in 1956. Meet Our Speakers: symbol of U.S. presence in Conrad “Gus “ Shin and Antarctica. Billy Blackwelder However, his career goes Conrad "Gus" Shinn, back to 1946 when he was pictured at the right, is most assigned to test and develop famous for being the first skis for the R4D. These skis pilot to land at the South Pole made it possible for the air- on Oct. 31, 1956, establish- craft to land in the field and ing the base that today is the (Continued on page 2) Contents The October ECHS Meeting First Plane Lands at South Pile 2 The Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2013 It Was a Magnificent Airplane 5 The Program: “Show and Tell” 6 Little America The Place: The Meeting Room in News and Announcements 8 the Thomas E. McMillan Museum Snapshots of August Meeting 10 Jefferson Davis Community College Snapshots of Fort Mims 12 Lt. Commander Gus Shinn Commemoration Come and Bring a Favorite Item or & Que Sera Sera Our Business Members 13 Picture, Anything that Brings Back Memories to Share with the Group Volume 40, Number 9 Railroad Junction Day 14 September 2013 VOLUME 40, SEPTMEBER 2013 Page 1 Meet Our Speakers: Conrad “Gus “ Shin and Billy Blackwelder (Continued from page 1) Combat Support Squadron TWO located in Lake- hurst, New Jersey which included a nine month opened up the Arctic and Antarctic for thorough and combat cruise in the Gulf of Tonkin aboard the USS efficient scientific investigation and exploration. INTREPID. He then served an additional tour as a In 1947, Gus flew an R4D from the USS Philip- flight instructor with HT-8, a tour on the staff of pine Sea into Little American and from there flew Training Air Wing FIVE at the Naval Air Station several long range aerial mapping flights, photo- Whiting Field and two tours with Antarctic Devel- graphing over 200,000 square mils of unexplored opment Squadron SIX. During his tours with VXE- territory. He also flew several flights with Admiral 6, operating our of Christchurch, New Zealand, he Richard E. Byrd, the leader of this expedition. worked extensively with officials of the National After a tour flying the Berlin Airlift, Gus was se- Science Foundation and with many members of the lected as the first pilot for Operation Deep international scientific community. Freeze, He participated in Operation Deep Freeze I, During his tour at Training Air Wing FIVE, he II, and III and essentially "wrote the book" on polar twice served on additional duty as commander of a flight operations. He not only made the first landing Military Assistance Team located in Jakarta, at the Pole but led the next five flights there, ferry- Indonesia where he was responsible for training In- ing the men and equipment for building the first donesian Air Force pilots and maintenance person- South Pole Station in his air- nel. In appreciation for his work craft Que Sera Sera. He was in- he was awarded the Indonesian Air ducted as an Honorary Member of Force Senior Pilot Wings with the American Polar Society in Chief of Staff's Star. His awards 1999. include the Air Medal, two Merito- Lt. Cmd. Billy Blackwelder, rious Unit Citations, two Navy pictured at the right, entered the Unit Citations, Navy Expedition- Navy as a Naval Aviation Cadet in ary Medal, National Defense, Ant- 1958. Following flight training he arctic Service Medal, Armed was commissioned as an ensign Forces Expeditionary Medal, and and designated a naval aviator in several Vietnam Campaign rib- 1959. Following a tour of duty with Helicopter An- bons. He later worked as Director, Midshipmen In- tisubmarine Squadron SEVEN at Norfolk, Vir- doctrination School, Naval Aviation Schools Com- ginia, he returned to Pensacola as a flight instructor mand in March 1977. He retired in June 1981. He with Helicopter Training Squadron EIGHT. Follow- is married to Joyce, a school teacher and has one ing this tour he served for two years Helicopter son, John, who is also a school teacher. € First Plane Lands At South Pole The following article by Maurice Cutler, United tion. Press Staff Correspondent appears online at < leaks- A United States Navy R4D (Dakota DC-3) made a ville.com/first_plane_lands_at_south_pole.htm >. successful landing four miles from the presently Leaksville is a community near Spray, North Caro- known location of the South Pole at 2034 hours New lina, which is Gus Shinn’s home town. Zealand time (0834 GMT Wednesday). With a long One Thousand Feet Above the South Pole, Oct. 31 - vapor trail stretching miles behind it, I saw the small - (UP) I have just witnessed the historic first landing ski-equipped Dakota, named Que Sera Sera, grind to of an aircraft at the South Pole and the first person a halt, throwing a wake of snow in its path. setting foot there since Scott's ill-fated 1912 expedi- Overhead, a United States Air Force C-124 Globe- (Continued on page 3) VOLUME 40, SEPTMEBER 2013 Page 2 First Plane Lands At South Pole (Continued from page 2) Glacier outpost. After topping off its fuel master carrying this corre- tanks, the aircraft then spondent circled the area made its way back across in brilliant sunshine, leav- the Ross Ice Shelf to ing crisscrossing vapor McMurdo Sound. trails. It carried emer- Adm. Dufek's participa- gency supplies that would tion was appropriate be airdropped should the given the fact that he has small plane be unable to been a member of all U.S. take off from the 10,000- Antarctic expeditions foot Polar since he navigated Admi- plateau. ral Richard Byrd's flag- Que Sera Sera--what This photo of Que Sera Sera by Lt, John R. ship USS Bear in 1939- will be, will be--landed Swadener appeared in the 31 December 1956 issue 41. safely in a temperature of of Time magazine with the caption: "It was like going into around 60 below zero “Dufek’s Party at the Pole another world," Dufek From eleven bottles, a wrench and a Fahrenheit. The honor of told correspondents after stagger…” being the first person at Quoted from http://www.southpolestation. his return, referring to the Pole in 44 years went com/trivia/igy1/que1.html the severe temperatures. to Operation Deep Freeze After three minutes, he commander Rear Admiral George Dufek of Rock- noted that the face of Navy VX-6 Squadron com- ford, Ill. mander, Capt. Douglas L. Cordiner of Washington, In a message to our plane, Adm. Dufek said he D.C., "was white with frostbite." Members of the raised the Stars and Stripes for the first time at the small group on the Dakota kept looking at each South Pole. After 50 minutes on the desolate polar other to detect frostbite. plateau--a flat, white A Time magazine article describes the takeoff The Pole landing party landmass stretching miles thus: said they were heartened to the horizon- -the Da- "Then, with frostbite already showing on to hear the Globemaster kota commanded by [RADM] Dufek's nose, the party stomped back commander Major C.J. Lieutenant-Commander into the airplane, its engines still turning over. Ellen of Raleigh, N.C., Conrad (Gus) Shinn of But when Pilot Conrad Shinn gunned his en- tell them, "if you can't get Spray, N.C., took off at gines and fired four JATO (jet assist) bottles off, we'll crash-land be- 2123 hours local time. It for takeoff, the R4D stuck fast, its skis frozen to side you, so you'll have a was headed for the sup- the icy surface. Only by blasting off his eleven house." port base near the Liv remaining JATO bottles did Shinn wrench the Dufek said that when Glacier and the Duncan plane loose and stagger into the thin air at well he and Cordiner Mountains. below normal takeoff speed." attempted to plant the However, shortly after Also (according to RADM Dufek's book, the flag, "we really had to dig takeoff from the Pole, the R4D with out pickaxes." Dur- Dakota reported engine carried 15 and Gus fired 4 at a time, then the ing this activity one of trouble. Our Globemaster last 3 before he got off deck. Cordiner's hands became then reduced speed and All of the above quoted from the source numb in a very few min- accompanied it down the <http://www.southpolestation.com/trivia/igy1/ utes. Beardmore Glacier to a que1.html>. safe landing at the Liv (Continued on page 4) VOLUME 40, SEPTMEBER 2013 Page 3 First Plane Lands At South Pole “THE LUCKY SEVEN, the first Americans to ever set foot on the South Pole to plant the Stars and Stripes beside the cross of Norway and the Union Jack.