Evening Star Newspaper, February 16, 1930, Page 100

- 16 - ; THE SUNDAY STAR,; .WASHINGTON, .D..C,. FEBRUARY 16,. 1930. s S TS How LEicelson Blazed the Alaskan Airmail Tmzl ). The Harrowing Story of Lieut. Carl Ben Eielson, Who W. as Lost in the Alaskan Wilderness on the Return Leg of the First - Mail Flight From Fairbanks to McGrath in the Northernmost Province, and Who - Recently Met o Heroic Death in the Snow fields of Siberia. BY ISAAC GREGG. OST in an airplane in ghe stygian darkness of an Alaskan t, without a star above nor a light below to guide him, was the harrowing ex- perience of Lieut. Carl Ben Eielson, Alaska, on February 21, 1924, and who only recently met a heroic yet tragic wilds of Siberia. rmail pilot, and has achievements of bravery, even under adverse cir- umstances and in the face of most trying conditions, are emblasoned on the. pages of the official records of the Post Office Department. Eielson was picked to carry the first mail by air in Alaska because of the knowledge he had gained of the country, its streams and terrain, and because of his determination to make this experiment a complete success despite the - hazards and risks which he knew were before him. ES g 4 HITY {30 sE : ? il FREE g pit o ns, at the pilot’s feet, his hands, his face to any portion of his body suffering from the cold. 5 Eielson declared that as he took off in his flight he noticed that his compass was off about 40 degrees on account of magnetism in his engine. As he was well acquainted with the country over which he was flying, he did not depend on his compass except to follow relative by pointing the plane at landmarks which he knew. RE ‘THE first 50 miles I followed the Tanana River, whichisa fair emergency field, though the ice is a little rough in places,” Eielson re- ported. ‘“At Nenana, a town of 100 inhabitants, I left the Tanana and steered across the country. I veered to the left of a straight course in order to follow the flat coun! and stay near the road houses which are ted on the mail trail at intervals of some 35 miles. After an hour and a half I spotted Lake Minchumina to my right. I was then half way between the lake and Mount McKinley, each of them probably 30 miles away. “I passed to the left of the Munsatli Moun- fains and a little later saw the main Kua- kokwim River, which I followed in to McGrath, my destination. I landed on the Tacotna River at McGrath at 11:35 am. It took me 2 hours and 50 minutes to cover the 280 miles, straight course.” It had taken a dog team from 16 to 18 days to cover the same distance. While Eielson completed the first leg of his trip without mishap, he was not so fortunate on the journey back to Rather than face a cold motor in the morning and with a full realization of the danger of being caught by the early descending darkness of an Alaskan February night, be began the return trip at 2:35 pm. “I expected,” said Eielson in his report, “to get home by 5:10 pm. That is just at dusk. I flew over Appel Mountain and 1 hour and 15 minutes * later I reached Lake Minchumina, which is nearly the half-way point. ‘This was on schedule, 36 I thought I was all right. “Later, I passed over a sfream w'h._lch"'_ya‘i notonthempmdlwtltmuubethe Kantishna River. Still later I reached this To the left I saw & bluff which looked like the Nenana bluff. I checked it further by noticing a river going around the bluff. I was positive that it was Nenana when I saw a river enter- ing the Tanana at the point where the Nenana River enters the Tanana, at the town of Nenana. “I struck for the bluff and everything was all right except that the town of Nenana was not in its place. I know I must have veered to the left so I started up the Taflana. I fol- lowede it for half an hour (that is 50 miles). “By this time it was pitch dark. I could not believe that I had gotten on the Kantishna River and that I was following it back to Mount McKinley, as the country looked flat in the pitch darkness. The sky was entirely overcast; not a star showed. y “I wandered around completely lost for most of an hour. Then I knew that the river I had left was the Tanana. About this time I saw a light, so I cut my altitude and went down to it. It must have been a trapper’s cabin near the Chatanika River. I was tempted to set the ship down there and have a nice place to sleep, but I knew I would wreck it if I did. So I decided to look around some more. I went back to the big river I had left and while fol- lowing it down saw a flare in the distance. £ :ggg narrow soon flashed to Washington. Later on his of- ficial report reached the Post Office Depart- ment. Postmaster General Harry S. New was One of the recent photographs of Lieut. Carl Ben Eielson, taken at the time he rescued five men, one woman and @ 80 thrilled with the achievements of his air- mail pilot that he took Elelson’s report to the cabinet meeting, where it was read and dise cussed by President Coolidge and the members- of his official family. from Pairbanks to McGrath United States mail. When the Distinguished Flying Cross was presented to Lieut. Eielson at the . . War Department in' Washington. At Left: Gen. Summerall. At right: Assistant Secretary of War Davison. Lieut. Eielson flew across the North. Pole in April, . © 1928; million-dollar car, ship which had been ice-locked for two months in t of furs from & motor Arctic Ocean off the At the same time, Postmaster General New sent the imtrepid air mail pilot the following letter of congratulation: “I wish to extend my personal con- gratulations on the success of your first round trip between Fairbanks and Mc- Grath, report of which has just reached ‘Second Assistant Postmaster me General Henderson. “It is certaily a most interesting story, one full of thrills, especially to the man upon completion of the story the dent said he would like to send word of appreciation, which he has done, and his letter goes forward Fashion Pirates. Continued from Tenth Page and the director certainly had to keep his eme ployes hard at work to cover even his expenses. Things were just the same in the designing room. Several highly paid men were fussing over some dusty old sketches, “But I know. that this is a pirate house,” one of the dressmakers’ representatives exclaimed, “We not only got.a hot tip from a reliable source last night, but three of our woman de- tectives bought gowns here that were copied from our latest models.” “You are mistaken,” the pirate smiled slyly again. “Some one has played a joke on you.” Just at this moment the police commissioner, who was snooping about the wardrobes, touched a hidden button and the door of a hidden ward- robe in the back flew open. - What a sight! In this secret hiding place were row after row of copies of the Rue de In