Richard Evelyn Byrd was a
very busy man: explorer, naval officer, author, aviator,
and writer. He is in our Explorers' Hall of Fame for his
explorations of Antarctica.
Richard Byrd was born in
Winchester, Virginia in 1888. He graduated from the
United States Naval Academy in 1912. In a few months he
managed to get assigned to a Navy flying school. During
the World War I, he commanded an air station in Nova
Scotia. After the war, he was promoted to lieutenant
commander. In 1925, he led the naval air unit of an
expedition to Greenland.
Richard Byrd's first polar expedition
was to the Arctic. On this expedition he claimed a vast
territory for the United States. He named it Mary Byrd
Land after his wife. On May 9, 1926, with Floyd Bennett
as his pilot, Byrd navigated the first plane to fly over
the North Pole. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for the
achievement, but later his claim was seriously
disputed.
In 1927 Byrd flew across the Atlantic
with a crew of three, just one month after
Charles
Lindbergh made the first solo
flight across the Atlantic. Although the 42-hour flight
crash-landed on the coast of France, Byrd and his crew
were safe.
After this, Byrd became interested
in exploring Antarctica. From 1928 to 1947, he led four
major expeditions to this continent.
From 1928 to 1930, Byrd led his
first Antarctic expedition. Its main purpose was to map a
large part of the continent. Byrd established a research
base called Little America. During this exploration, Byrd
and a crew of three made the first flight over the South
Pole in 1929. In 1930, at the end of the first
expedition, he was made rear admiral of the US Navy.
From 1933 to 1935 Byrd returned to
Antartica. He then spent five months alone in a hut 120
miles south of Little America to study inland
temperatures. He endured temperatures as low as -76
degrees F. Due to a clogged chimney, Byrd became very
ill. He refused to call for help. Finally, a tractor
party rescued him.
On his third Antarctic mission from 1939 to 1941, Byrd
made more flights and discovered the southern limit of
the Pacific.
In 1946-47, he commanded a project
to discover and map large areas of Antarctic territory
called Operation High Jump. During this mission, he made
his second flight over the South Pole.
In 1955, Richard Byrd directed
Operation Deep Freeze, the first phase of United States
operations in the Antarctic. In 1956 Byrd made his last
flight over the pole. He died in his home in Boston in
1957, and was acclaimed an international
hero.
